As I said in my last blog, when the herds of goats crossing the highway, the butchers shop under the tree, the woman carrying 5 watermelons on her head and mass of motorbikes weaving in between all of it becomes normal, it's easy to forget that I am living in Africa. It's when I see first hand people who have survived trials that I will never enduring during my life time is when I am reminded that I am living in Africa.
This is a place of so much contrast. A place of beauty, culture, love, family and community, but also a place of so much need, poverty, sickness, sadness, loneliness, abandonment and fear. Over the past few days, God has been painting a picture of this contrast in my heart. I have had the privilege of hearing and seeing the stories of Nigerians around me, and God has broken my heart for them. I will do my best to put these stories and feelings on paper, but nothing I write will truly convey what these children of God have actually experienced.
Think back to when you were 15 or 16 years old. The middle of high school, around the time of drivers licenses, football games, school dances and maybe a small part-time job at the local coffee shop. Family and friends, teachers, and coaches to support and encourage you. Dreams maybe of traveling to the world, attending university, developing a career and having a family. Now instead imagine your life like this. . .
You have spent your whole life growing up alongside your brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and parents on your family compound in Sierra Leone. Suddenly due to a military uprising in your country you are forced to flee Sierra Leone, most likely on foot. You become separated from your entire family and find yourself alone as a refugee in a foreign land. Several months pass by as you struggle to survive, and eventually you find yourself in Nigeria. You pick up odd jobs anywhere you can just to have enough food to survive. Eventually a man much older than you asks you to marry him. Realizing that marriage would mean a place to live and some stability for your life you agree. Soon after your marriage, you become pregnant. Your husband decides that he no longer wants anything to do with you, so he leaves. Thankfully your in-laws let you stay with them for a few months, but soon, blind to the fact that you could give birth at any moment they get tired of providing for you and kick you out of the house.
Thankfully a neighboring family realizes that you could give birth at any moment, and takes you in. A few days later your little boy is born. The family allows you to stay with them for about 6 months while you and your child regain strength, but soon they cannot provide for you any more so they kick you out of their house. With no one and no where to go, you spend your days begging on the streets. You and your child become more and more weak with hunger and sickness. Eventually a someone seeing your physical state, takes pity on you and takes you to a local television station hoping the television station will do a story on you and that someone will help you.
This is the true story of a young woman probably the age of 18 or 19 named Sophie. Thankfully instead of the television station doing a story on her, they brought her and her son Matthew to Gidan Bege. When she first arrived at Gidan Bege, everyone thought she was going to die because she was so sick. Within hours of arriving at Gidan Bege, Sophie was taken to the hospital. She stayed there for several days while she was treated for typhoid among many other things. While at the hospital, it was also discovered that Sophie is HIV positive.
Sophie and her son Matthew have been taken in by another ministry called the Mashiah foundation. Mashiah ministers to HIV positive women and their children. The ministry provides housing food and medical care as well as schooling for the children. While the children are at school, the women attend classes that teach them how to sew and quilt. Eventually the women can sell their projects in the Mashiah store and begin to earn their own income and provide for their families.
What a life so different from what many of us have experienced. When I heard Sophie and Matthew’s story my heart was broken. Although I know we all experience pain and suffering no matter what country we are from, and I know that pain and suffering is difficult no matter what form it comes in, it is difficult to imagine a life like Sophie and Matthew’s.
Praise the Lord that he can redeem stories such as Sophie and Matthew’s story. God is so much bigger than all of our pain and suffering and he can bring redemption to each of our lives if we just give him the chance.
“He changes rivers into a wilderness, and springs of water into a thirsty ground;
This is a place of so much contrast. A place of beauty, culture, love, family and community, but also a place of so much need, poverty, sickness, sadness, loneliness, abandonment and fear. Over the past few days, God has been painting a picture of this contrast in my heart. I have had the privilege of hearing and seeing the stories of Nigerians around me, and God has broken my heart for them. I will do my best to put these stories and feelings on paper, but nothing I write will truly convey what these children of God have actually experienced.
Think back to when you were 15 or 16 years old. The middle of high school, around the time of drivers licenses, football games, school dances and maybe a small part-time job at the local coffee shop. Family and friends, teachers, and coaches to support and encourage you. Dreams maybe of traveling to the world, attending university, developing a career and having a family. Now instead imagine your life like this. . .
You have spent your whole life growing up alongside your brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and parents on your family compound in Sierra Leone. Suddenly due to a military uprising in your country you are forced to flee Sierra Leone, most likely on foot. You become separated from your entire family and find yourself alone as a refugee in a foreign land. Several months pass by as you struggle to survive, and eventually you find yourself in Nigeria. You pick up odd jobs anywhere you can just to have enough food to survive. Eventually a man much older than you asks you to marry him. Realizing that marriage would mean a place to live and some stability for your life you agree. Soon after your marriage, you become pregnant. Your husband decides that he no longer wants anything to do with you, so he leaves. Thankfully your in-laws let you stay with them for a few months, but soon, blind to the fact that you could give birth at any moment they get tired of providing for you and kick you out of the house.
Thankfully a neighboring family realizes that you could give birth at any moment, and takes you in. A few days later your little boy is born. The family allows you to stay with them for about 6 months while you and your child regain strength, but soon they cannot provide for you any more so they kick you out of their house. With no one and no where to go, you spend your days begging on the streets. You and your child become more and more weak with hunger and sickness. Eventually a someone seeing your physical state, takes pity on you and takes you to a local television station hoping the television station will do a story on you and that someone will help you.
This is the true story of a young woman probably the age of 18 or 19 named Sophie. Thankfully instead of the television station doing a story on her, they brought her and her son Matthew to Gidan Bege. When she first arrived at Gidan Bege, everyone thought she was going to die because she was so sick. Within hours of arriving at Gidan Bege, Sophie was taken to the hospital. She stayed there for several days while she was treated for typhoid among many other things. While at the hospital, it was also discovered that Sophie is HIV positive.
Sophie and her son Matthew have been taken in by another ministry called the Mashiah foundation. Mashiah ministers to HIV positive women and their children. The ministry provides housing food and medical care as well as schooling for the children. While the children are at school, the women attend classes that teach them how to sew and quilt. Eventually the women can sell their projects in the Mashiah store and begin to earn their own income and provide for their families.
What a life so different from what many of us have experienced. When I heard Sophie and Matthew’s story my heart was broken. Although I know we all experience pain and suffering no matter what country we are from, and I know that pain and suffering is difficult no matter what form it comes in, it is difficult to imagine a life like Sophie and Matthew’s.
Praise the Lord that he can redeem stories such as Sophie and Matthew’s story. God is so much bigger than all of our pain and suffering and he can bring redemption to each of our lives if we just give him the chance.
“He changes rivers into a wilderness, and springs of water into a thirsty ground;
A fruitful land into a salt waste, because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it.
He changes a wilderness into a pool of water, and a dry land into springs of water;
And there He makes the hungry to dwell, so that they may establish an inhabited city.”
-Psalm 107:33-36
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