J
osephine had been in the Bible School for three years before graduating. She is a quiet woman, a bit shy and reserved, with a contagious smile. Like many others in the Schools, I knew her to a limited extent. With 250+ Pastors and Ministry Leaders at any one time, it is difficult to have a deep relationship with every student. I knew Josephine had serious health problems with her heart. She could not do the normal volunteer duties that required physical labor. She had a hard time even climbing the stairs. She later told me that one full day of Bible School would leave her exhausted for the next 6 days.
At the Diploma graduation, she came with a remark that stunned me. “Brother Paul, I want you to know that I love you. You are more than a brother to me. You are the father I never had.” I was stunned and quite speechless. Those were very powerful words, and I felt most unworthy of the same. It was then, on her literal last day of Bible School, that Josephine first began to share her testimony with me. I could sense the pain and struggle in her trying to express herself. Smiling so graciously, but trembling as she spoke of a life of Rejection. Josephine grew up in a disturbed family. “Severely Dysfunctional” would be the more common term in current psychology. Her “parents” included a father, three wives, various concubines and twenty-seven known siblings. Her father was a “visiting father.” He never lived at home, but only visited once or twice per year. “Once a year my father would leave a sack of maize and vegetables. After a few days, he’d leave again. Never once did he say good-bye.” In addition to the constant hunger, lack of schooling and chronic sickness was added the common fruit of polygamy: endless strife, jealousies, competition and manipulation. As childhood transpired into youth, her elder brothers and sisters set a pattern of survival: get married or simply get out. “Five of my sisters were sent to London and were promised all kinds of things. When I was 19 years old, my brother tried to send me. He knew I was interested in the things of God, so he promised me I’d be sent to Bible School when I arrived in London. Something in my spirit sensed it was a trap. I refused his pressure to go. I asked my brother, “‘Is there a God of Africa? Is not God here? Do I have to go to London to get God’s help?’”
Her mother, brothers and sisters mocked her, called her a fool to forego such a “blessing.” They rejected her…even until now. It was later that
she learned her sisters had all been convinced to prostitute themselves overseas. Literally. Josephine recounts, “They all lived dirty lives. And they still do. Now I know that God spared me. That rejection by my family was God’s mercy on me.”
That rejection by my family was God’s mercy on me.” And so, Josephine was coerced into the only remaining option: she was married. “My father accepted a dowry from a man I didn’t know. He had a good job in a bank, and paid my father enough to buy me. The man took to his home in Nairobi. Soon after my troubles got worse. My husband would not stay home. He rejected me in almost all things. He refused to have children. He refused to provide for me. I felt like I was the concubine that my sisters had willingly become in London. When I eventually became pregnant, my husband stopped coming home completely.” Josephine’s rejection by her father, family and husband drove her into a deep depression. “Over the next 4 years, my husband became a drunkard and heavily involved with witchcraft. When I became pregnant for the second time, he beat me. Soon after I became crazy. I had a mental breakdown and was put in the Mathare Mental Hospital. It was there that I met my Jesus.” “A pastor would come by weekly and pray for me. I didn’t know who he was. But surely I began to look forward to his arrival. My mind came back to normal through this pastor’s prayers. Don’t let anyone tell you it’s too late, or someone is too far gone. When everyone else had rejected me, God sent a poor pastor from the slums to visit the unknown, the unbelieving, the castoffs and the unwanted in the worst hospital in Kenya. I was one of them…
…and I came to know one thing: only a loving God would do such a thing for me.” “When I was eventually released from the mental hospital, I was a new creation in Christ. I was accepted by Him. And there is no greater acceptance we can receive. My second daughter was born soon after. And I was determined this child would be set apart for Him as well. I named her Glory Grace.”
She soon learned a most profound lesson: “I came to find that just because we are ‘in-Christ’, it doesn’t mean that others will now accept us. In fact, my greatest rejection came after I was born again. I found myself very, very sick with a serious heart problem. My family took my two girls away and then dropped me at the door of a private hospital. They told the hospital, ‘She is a cabbage. We brought her here to die. We will not pay any bills.’ ” They left and never returned. For two weeks, Josephine remained unconscious. At one point, the doctor pulled the covers over her dead body. Her blanket had become a shroud. She woke up alone in the room, and pulled the cover back! “When I woke, I just spoke about Jesus!” The hospital staff was so moved by Josephine, the rejection by her family, and by her faith in Jesus, that they performed an extensive heart operation at no cost. In a private hospital! While in recovery for a month in the hospital, Josephine shared her Jesus with everyone and anyone in her midst. Upon discharge, the hospital asked her to return as a paid counselor! She works there part time to this day. In addition, the hospital has put her two daughters through college: one becoming a lab technician, the other studying Hospitality. One of the greatest spiritual moments I’ve experienced was through Josephine. It was during that graduation day at the Bible School. After recounting her testimony of lifelong Rejection, she looked at me, with tears streaming down her cheeks, and simply said…
Josephine assisting illiterate pastor with Bible School test
“This much I know: My Jesus loves me! He really, really LOVES me!” It changed my life right then and there. That one Insight answers so much. And it makes all the world’s Rejections utterly meaningless… Forever!
Contact Paul & Marcia Cowley Email:paul@disciplesupport.org marcia@disciplesupport.org Phone from USA 011-254-733-609-066 Skype: marcia.cowley Africa Mail Disciple Support Ministries P.O. Box 2318-00621, Nairobi, Kenya (please do not send packages)
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