I was meeting women who couldn’t
read their Bibles or write simple
words. As an avid reader, I couldn’t
sit there and watch the women in
the village struggle in that way. I
couldn’t leave the country to go
back to the USA where education is
free and not do anything. At first I
thought the notion was too big of a
task. It seemed reserved for heavyweights like Oprah Winfrey or Joyce
Meyer. The Lord kept tugging at my
heart, telling me, this mission was
for me to do. I couldn’t believe it.
At the time I was unemployed and
struggling just to pay my phone bill.
Soon after, I surrendered and
stopped trying to figure out how the
Lord was going to do it. I soon
opened a Literacy School for women
with five dollars I sent back to
Kenya through Western Union. A
couple of years later when the Adult
Literacy Program was thriving, I
read a story in the Kenyan
newspaper about two girls ages six
and ten who were married off to a
55 year old man for the price of $40
cash and a cow. I couldn’t sit and
hope someone would come along to
fix it. I had to know beyond a
shadow of a doubt that women and
girls like the ones I met first-hand
and read about in an article could
escape these atrocities.
Faith Heart Magazine: What type of
faith does it take to surrender and
carry out such a unique mission in
the body of Christ, internationally,
where God summons you to move
away like Abram, in Genesis 12:1-3,
from your country, family, and
familiar surroundings?
Faith Heart Magazine l 11
Sha’ Givens: A person must totally
lose themselves to serve the
people. You have to completely be
sold out to the Lord. Any remnant
of “self” in the equation will cause
a person to give up or simply tell
JESUS “no” when things get tough.
Don’t get me wrong. I gave up a
few times. I would always wake up
the next morning and start all
over again because the Holy Spirit
wouldn’t let me stop. I verbally
told God, “no” on a few occasions.
My “NO” was fueled by fear. The
fear of the unknown had gripped
me for a while. Interestingly, in
the midst of that fear, I kept
moving forward in spite of all my
doubts and what-if’s.