Monday, July 03, 2006

My Day With the Ladies of the Night

Shortly after my arrival in Kipkaren Kenya I was able to spend a day with a special group of ladies. Empowering Lives International (ELI) has been very involved in HIV and AIDS awareness in this area of the country. They are frequently hosting special campaigns to promote education and awareness. At a recent campaign the area director was approached by a woman. She told him that she is a prostitute and she knows she is HIV positive. She wants to stop spreading the disease and to leave the lifestyle. However, she did not know how else she could support herself and her children.

This provoked the founding of a new ministry which some of the staff are referring to as the Samaritan Womens ministry. Several of the women mentioned that they did not have their own Bibles. On the morning after I arrived in Kenya I was asked to mark passages in a group of Swahili Bibles for these women. As I was finishing the women began to arrive. I looked up and saw a young woman in jeans and a baseball cap. I instantly thought to myself that she should changed or she was going to be confused with a streetwalker. Then I remembered that that is exactly who she is!

We shared a devotional with the women and then washed their feet and gave them pedicures. So far we have seen 5 of them come to Christ. Please join me in praying that these women will find productive ways of supporting their families. Another organization called Heavenly Treasures has been meeting with some of them to develop business proposals and do budgeting. I feel so blessed to be involved in a ministry that is truly putting the word of God into practice on a daily basis.

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