What's a Girl To Do? Part Two

[It has been MONTHS since I last posted.  There's no good excuse other than to say, life is full with the good & the bad of being alive, but to explain all that would take another blog altogether!  I admit that with time passing, my memories of the Akala trip are not as vivid, but again, I am determined to finish, so here it is...]

[Read What's a Girl to Do? Part One here for a quick memory refresher]

Jumping ahead a few days, on our way back to the airport I had an opportunity to visit with Mama Aidah about the school conference trip.  The young pregnant student at the conference was haunting my thoughts and I replayed her questions over and over again in my mind.  I decided to tell Aidah about it and ask her advice for what I could have possibly said to encourage this young lady.

"Oh, you see, that is the tragedy of my country (Uganda) and for Kenya," Aidah said with sadness in her voice.  Then she explained to Dave and I how there were very few resources for unwed pregnant girls.  She told us that if a girl were 16 years or younger, then the father of that child was held criminally liable and would be arrested for getting her pregnant.  It didn't matter if the father were a young person or an old person, they could go to jail if they were found out.  Then, because poverty presses so hard upon so many, the families of these girls usually kick them out of the home.  The logic is that if the girl can't provide extra income to pay for the baby, then the family can't afford to let her stay.  If the girl is kicked out of home, that means there is nobody to pay her school fees so then she is kicked out of school.  Finally, very few people will take an unwed pregnant girl into their home because if anything happened to that young lady or the baby, that family would be held liable and they too could be put in jail.

Aidah went on to say that the "tragedy" was that most of these girls will go through their pregnancies homeless, doing whatever they can to survive, then discard their newborns after delivery so they can try to return to the life they had before.  Aidah said it is very common to find babies left just out on the street - some dead, some alive.  Although she didn't say so, I assume under these circumstances, it is very unlikely that these girls return to life as they once knew it.

Truly, what is a girl to do?

Aidah, for one, spends part of her time each month mentoring young people on how to avoid the situation altogether.  She is an advocate for abstinence and does this work in partnership with Hines Ministries.  According to Aidah, one of the things the Hines Ministry does is find host homes for un-wed pregnant girls that are willing to provide for them until the baby is born.  Then they serve as liasons to bring reconcilliation to the girl and her family.  If that isn't possibly, they do what they can to teach that young lady how to live life on her own.

Aidah also pours out her love and attention to the children of the Karamajong tribe living in Mbale, Uganda.  These are the poorest of the poor surviving in sub-standard conditions.  She shared her heart with an American named Becky Ball and from there, a new ministry was born, I Choose You.  Through this ministry, children are being clothed, educated and fed and their entire families are being changed as they come to experience Jesus' love and concern for them. 

Also, from what I can put together from numerous conversations with she and Morris, the Ogengas have also opened up their own home to many young people over the years to help see them through life.  Sounds like their house is a little compound of its own with all the guests they care for!  Yes that girl (Aidah) knows exactly what she is doing.

For myself, I'm not quite sure what I am to do, but I came away from our trip feeling urgently that I must do something.  Initially, I thought, "I must come back to Africa and help these girls survive!" but then God impressed upon me that there are young ladies right here in America who are going through the exact same thing. 

Now, sitting here in the comfort of my own home, months having passed since my convictions burned so bright, I confess that I still have not acted.  It's hard to explain so I'll just speak plainly.  I prayed about working with the local crisis pregnancy center and even attempted to meet with them to talk about volunteer opportunities, but circumstances led to cancelling that appointment. 

I never reset that appointment, because my husband and I had been feeling led to adopt a baby of our own, specifically from someone considering abortion (that's a long story for another day).  I began wondering if my motives for working with crisis pregnancies was pure - I mean, how could I sit patiently and listen to someone in crisis when in my heart I'm thinking, "I'll take your baby!" 

The conviction to adopt has also been quite confusing.  It first came to our family BEFORE our mission trip - in fact, it was so emotionally distracting that we chose to lay it aside and not act until after we got home so that we could focus on our work in Africa.  As fate would have it, my husband's company sent him on an oversees assignment just days after our return.  He was gone for a month and that time was quite consuming for both of us - he with work and me as a single parent.  It also tempered the fire that burned so bright during the summer until now, here in the winter of a new year I wonder if we even heard God correctly at all.

Yet still, the question haunts me - what's a girl to do?  Or more pointedly, what's THIS girl suppose to do?

If anybody out there still follows this blog, I'd love to hear some opinions or better still, I would covet your prayers.  I want to hear God and obey and if I have heard God and disobeyed, then I want to know that too.  Hopefully, by the grace of God, I haven't missed something good that He has planned for my family. 

Blessings to you all and thanks for hanging with this blog through thick and thin.  I hope to finish the account of our trip very soon.

- Julie