A Necklace for a Cause

Recently I met the most incredible woman named Sabina.  She is visiting this month from Nairobi, Kenya.  In the nineties she was introduced to Christ.  When she became a Christian her husband told her she had to choose between their marriage and Christ.  She told him she loved him as her husband, and as the father of her children, but that she had to choose Christ....she could not afford not to put Christ first.  Her husband left her and told her that he wanted nothing to do with her or their two sons.  As a recently single mother, which put her on the outside of society in her community, she had to find a way to support her family.  She trusted God to show her the way, stepped out in faith and rented a little stall at the open air market selling beads she made out of old magazines.  In this large market, God brought enough people to her little stall to buy enough beads to feed her sons, but she knew there was more.  She began visiting a hospital with patients who had been abandoned by their families because of their long stay dealing with spinal injuries.  She took any extra money she could to help them have a better life.  They waited for her weekly, and she shared her joy amid her trials.  But, again,  she knew there was even more.  She soon realized her country had a problem.  Aids was rampant, and there was no eduation.  It's not a matter of a few bad choices-they did not know there were additional consequences beyond the already difficult life they had chosen.   Sabina put herself through school to learn how to teach Aids education.  And then she went.  She went and found the people that needed to hear about aids, and more importantly about a loving God who sent His son because He loves us all-regardless of our past, present, and even our futures.  She entered the slums and showed the prostitutes the unconditional love the Lord had shared with her years earlier.  God sent Barry Wood's ministry to partner up with Sabina.  They bought her a projector so she could play an Aids education video, and the Jesus film for the ladies she encountered.  The ladies started living changed lives.  They wanted more, they wanted to lead a life pleasing to God, but they needed to feed their families.  Isn't that where so many sit at a crossroads, wanting to be different, but not knowing 'how?'   Sabina realized she needed to teach these new sisters the path that had helped her.  She taught them the art of bead making, and they all began making beads to sell at her little booth.  Was this all?  Are you kidding?  No, Sabina went back into the slums and she started ministering to the men.  They are gang members, they showed up to her meetings with their guns in tow, but she said she knew her Jesus was bigger than their guns.  They came because they had heard about a woman that cared about them.  This is where her ministry currently lives.  The men are searching for new ways to live a new life in Christ.  They have done unspeakable things, but she has shared Christ love, and the blood that covers their sins.  They now make soap to sell in the market.  Barry Wood's ministry has brought Sabina here for the month to help launch a larger ministry because she's not finished yet.  She went somewhere nobody was willing to go.  She went armed with a relationship with Christ she needed to share.  I was able to hear her story through a class at church.  I am not currently able to walk the streets of Kenya and witness to these woman, but I know a lady who is, and I know each bead purchase makes a difference, and a way to live a changed life.   I bought some of her beautiful beads.  I'm giving these to my friends this Christmas with these attached cards that tell a small part of her story. 



These were made by ex prostitutes in Kenya.  This is how they support their families. 

They, in turn, share their stories and this love from Christ that Sabina shared with them with those in their lives. 

There is a saying, "If you give a man a fish, he eats for a day.  If you teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime."  Sabina has brought practical life skills to these women to show them another way.  She's brought education to prevent them from contracting Aids.  Most of all, she brought hope.  In the end, if you don't have that higher purpose to live for.  If you don't know about the unconditional love of Christ.  You'll never find anything that can satisfy here on earth. 
I really am excited about her ministry.  Eventually, they will be selling these online, and I'll definitely be sharing that website. 
Here are some additional beads made from cow bones. 

They can't afford to let anything go to waste.  It reminds me of how new life comes from death. 

I've always loved servicing the needy.  Coming from a house that was hit with a tragedy at a very young age.  Having nothing but a faith in Christ, and realizing that was more than enough, I can understand in small pieces parts of this story.  My Mom could have sat back and waited to see how the world would help her out, but she trusted that God would take care of things when my father was killed in a hit and run accident.  She got to work raising me and my brother and teaching us about the hope she had. 

It means so much to give in tragic circumstances, to be there, to support, but it's the long term care....and teaching others how to take care of themselves  when the hugs and help are gone that the real healing, growth, and ultimately the continuation of those lessons happens.  Yes, it's great to go when tragedy strikes a person, or a nation, but what an important reminder from Sabina that the important thing to remember is some people don't just need a meal to fill a hungry belly, they need to know how they can earn the money to buy future meals. 

Regardless of your denomination, or faith, few would disagree that what Sabina did is amazing.  Add her faith, and it's impossible for me to overlook the testimony God wrote in her life.  John 3:16.  When they get the site up and running, it's my prayer that others will want to get these beads, and wear her story.  It's also a reminder-if God will send a woman into the slums of Nairobi, Kenya to share His love with a prostitute, and a gang member.....I'm certainly encouraged and able to take a tray of cookies over to a hurting neighbor the next house over.