I first meet Josee on the street selling fruit. I quickly learned that she had been announced barren four years ago and since that time practicing prostitution. Some had been advising her to visit the witchdoctors so that she could be “restored” from her bareness. I advised her that instead of trusting the witch doctor that she should put her trust in God; and that she needed to wait for the right man that would value her instead of use her.
It has been two and a half years since the time I first meet Josee and much has happened in between. She joined our first class of girls in the Peace House vulnerable women’s program and we have been walking alongside her ever since.
Last month when I went to visit Josee I was deeply encouraged. She has turned into an amazing woman whose faith in life and God has been restored and who is now sharing and restoring faith in others. I was blessed to meet a group of 10 ladies that she is inviting to Jesus where they meet once a week to do a discovery Bible study and small savings of 300Rwf (.40 cents) per week. Among those women, there is a single mother with two children that Josee has been housing and taking care of. This lady (Vestine) came to Jesus and was baptized just last month.
In addition to that, Josee was elected in her village to represent her people; she is now a local leader in charge of social affairs and community development. When the village leader came to see me, he told me how proud he is of Josee and that she is a role model for women in their village. I could hardly believe that this is the same Josee that I meet two and a half years ago selling fruit and her body to survive.
The greatest part about her story is that Josee is now happily married. She lives with her husband in a small house that they own from which they operate a small shop; and on top of that God has opened her womb and now Josee is expecting.
When I think of Josee I can’t help but think of the Samaritan woman at the well that Jesus encountered. She was one of the less likely candidates to declare and announce the Messiahs arrival; yet she is the very one that found favor in doing so. Josee is a reminder to us of the upside down Kingdom, a Kingdom in which valleys rise and the last are first.
Praise God with us for Josee!
– Charlotte Nyirabugingo
