The Faces of Grace
I can remember the popping sound that the tin roof made as the Kenyan sun high above started to heat up the metal. The day was bright and sunny and filled with the excitement of being back on red African dirt, and I was able to push past the reaching fingers of jet lag that were trying to drag me down. I hadn't expected to wake up that Saturday morning and hit the ground running, but when God gives you the opportunity to witness the work He is doing, you don't decline the invitation. In fact, I always find great delight in the unexpected gifts He has, the ones that aren't on the trip's agenda.
That first morning spent in Kenya was just that - a beautiful gift.
I followed my guide up the hill towards a school house located at the back corner of the property, my lungs getting their first chance to try and breathe while climbing the elevated hills of Tigoni. Our visit happened to fall on a Saturday when the Neema girls were meeting, and we were getting the chance to stop in and visit with some of the young women in the group.
To give you a little bit of background, the Neema girls were started by a godly young woman named Grace. In fact, the word Neema is the Swahili word for grace, so the Neema girls are "Grace's girls." And indeed, she watches over them as if each were her own, from the time they're in school until they find their footing as adults in the outside world and beyond, Grace walks alongside them offering much needed guidance and support.
Each of these thirty young women is the daughter of a tea field worker. Having come from single parent homes where the income is very little, Grace realized that these young women would need education in order to step away from a future in the tea fields themselves. They needed schooling, but they also needed work skills, they needed care and attention, and above all else, they needed God.
On the day we came to visit, the girls were learning job skills that they could use to help support themselves in the future. For that Saturday, it was bead-work:
This was very much the scene that greeted me that January day. Young hands busy stringing beads into a design or sewing the bead-work onto a purse. The girls were quiet, but would look up and smile, or take a moment to greet us and tell us their names. There were shared giggles when a bead would escape from active hands and roll away across the cement floor. I had a chance to sit and talk with Lucidia (the woman in the pink shirt with her back turned to the camera). She's one of the older women who Grace has invited to help in the ministry. A mother to several boys and twin girls, Lucidia was sweet enough to allow me to ask her many questions about her life as well as instruct me on how to do the same bead-work the girls were learning. Before we left, we had the chance to pray over these girls, that God would keep His hand on them and guide their lives.
The very next morning I would have the pleasure of standing next to Grace in church and sing songs of praise to our Great God. She and I would cross paths throughout the week before our team headed back to the states, and I made sure to bring home a few Neema girl crafted treasures to both support and remember the special young women I met that day.
Grace has a Facebook page for the group and even from my far away home in Kentucky, I can continue to see the work God is doing through Grace. She is truly an inspiring woman of God who saw those in need around her and chose to care and to serve. Always giving God the glory, the thanks and the praise, I think we would all do well to follow her example in our own lives. I am thankful God allowed our paths to cross. I continue to keep Grace and her girls in my prayers, and what a blessing it would be if you would lift them up to the Father as well.
Blessings!
That first morning spent in Kenya was just that - a beautiful gift.
I followed my guide up the hill towards a school house located at the back corner of the property, my lungs getting their first chance to try and breathe while climbing the elevated hills of Tigoni. Our visit happened to fall on a Saturday when the Neema girls were meeting, and we were getting the chance to stop in and visit with some of the young women in the group.
To give you a little bit of background, the Neema girls were started by a godly young woman named Grace. In fact, the word Neema is the Swahili word for grace, so the Neema girls are "Grace's girls." And indeed, she watches over them as if each were her own, from the time they're in school until they find their footing as adults in the outside world and beyond, Grace walks alongside them offering much needed guidance and support.
Each of these thirty young women is the daughter of a tea field worker. Having come from single parent homes where the income is very little, Grace realized that these young women would need education in order to step away from a future in the tea fields themselves. They needed schooling, but they also needed work skills, they needed care and attention, and above all else, they needed God.
(Grace is the young woman wearing the white shirt in the middle)
Grace has an educational background in being a guidance counselor, but she stepped away from school counseling to focus on ministering to these young women. She finds funding for each girl's schooling, as well as meeting with them on days when school isn't in session, allowing them to share the struggles in their lives, to take in their prayer requests, and to pray alongside them. On the day we came to visit, the girls were learning job skills that they could use to help support themselves in the future. For that Saturday, it was bead-work:
This was very much the scene that greeted me that January day. Young hands busy stringing beads into a design or sewing the bead-work onto a purse. The girls were quiet, but would look up and smile, or take a moment to greet us and tell us their names. There were shared giggles when a bead would escape from active hands and roll away across the cement floor. I had a chance to sit and talk with Lucidia (the woman in the pink shirt with her back turned to the camera). She's one of the older women who Grace has invited to help in the ministry. A mother to several boys and twin girls, Lucidia was sweet enough to allow me to ask her many questions about her life as well as instruct me on how to do the same bead-work the girls were learning. Before we left, we had the chance to pray over these girls, that God would keep His hand on them and guide their lives.
The very next morning I would have the pleasure of standing next to Grace in church and sing songs of praise to our Great God. She and I would cross paths throughout the week before our team headed back to the states, and I made sure to bring home a few Neema girl crafted treasures to both support and remember the special young women I met that day.
Grace has a Facebook page for the group and even from my far away home in Kentucky, I can continue to see the work God is doing through Grace. She is truly an inspiring woman of God who saw those in need around her and chose to care and to serve. Always giving God the glory, the thanks and the praise, I think we would all do well to follow her example in our own lives. I am thankful God allowed our paths to cross. I continue to keep Grace and her girls in my prayers, and what a blessing it would be if you would lift them up to the Father as well.
Blessings!
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