There are some days on the race that you sit in awe and wonder at how, out of all the places you could be, you are where you are at that moment.
It was one of those days for me as I sat in Rwanda a part of a circle of women of all ages and listened to their testimonies. Rape, abuse, neglect, and prostitution were all common themes among them. How was I privileged to sit there? All month we have been sharing our stories with the women during morning devotionals as they sit there and listen, amazed that though we come from another part of the world they identify with parts of our own stories, and that we aren’t too different. The day they felt open to sharing theirs I sat back amazed at the privilege of being allowed in to that space with them. To watch them within their memories, sinking back to the pain and hardship in their lives and injustice they walked through because of their gender or status. How they were taken advantage of and brought to a place of desperation that prostitution felt like their only option to make money, or finally feel loved and accepted.
The Kelly Drader Longview Vocational Training Center was started with the intentions to provide women, who choose to leave prostitution, with a better life, by setting them up with a skill of sewing. There are currently 16 women of all ages a part of this current class. Sewing is really big here in the city of Kigali with markets making all their own clothes with Ankara fabric only found in Africa. It’s a useful skill while also being in community with other women who have taken the steps towards the same life, and be taught under skilled tailors.
After we lead devotional we teach English class on simple conversation and information for selling clothes. English is an important language to know here for business success.
T.S. Eliot says, “Success is relative. It is what we can make of the mess we have made of things.”
Most of these women have turned their lives around when they accepted Christ. Their stories still a part of them but don’t define them. Their stories didn’t undervalue mine and what I’ve walked through because in the end we are all able to glorify God which is all that really matters. Their stories show hard perseverance, determination, redemption, salvation and a God that is bigger than the evil in the world. A God that can set all things right and use all types of stories. A God of new creation.“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17
“Which of the two sons did what the father asked?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said, “Yes, and I tell you that crooks and whores are going to precede you into God’s kingdom. John came to you showing you the right road. You turned up your noses at him, but the crooks and whores believed him. Even when you saw their changed lives, you didn’t care enough to change and believe him. – Matthew 21:31 (MSG)
