While our travels around the world have been adventurous, we’ve also been faced with tough realities. In Isebania, Kenya for only a few days harsh reality comes knocking at our door through Madam Bonnie. Though a member of Deliverance Church, she is a head mistress of a school in town. She told stories of some nearby tribal rites of passage for girls. For years I had heard and prayed for girls in Kenya who undergo Female Genital Mutilation but I never thought I’d be this close to it. I never imagined having the opportunity to make a change. I also didn’t imagine that just the mention of the act would make my stomach churn.
She painted a December picture for us. Tribes take these girls to be circumcised. The girls aren’t even allowed to show pain. Once the surgery has been performed, they walk down the road. These girls are in so much pain that many of them faint, bleeding along the way. Others have been known to die right on the road.
Though hearing about the circumcision is disturbing, God has really been teaching me a great deal. God calls us to be circumcised. We are to be circumcised of the heart, not physically. As it speaks of in the prophets, we are to cut off the foreskin of our hearts and truly abide in Christ. 1 John says that we can’t deliberately live in sin and call ourselves children of God. As believers, we are called to a relationship with God. Out of our love for Him, we should strive to be holy in all areas of our lives and truly seek help when it’s difficult.
God has used us to tell these girls that the best rite of passage is forming a relationship with Jesus Christ, not being circumcised.
