Aurola

As I reflect on the last week or so my thoughts spin as I have no good place to start! The Lord ordained several moments in the last week. I had no idea of what I was in store for.

Let me start with my home stay. I spent two nights over three days in the village setting of Africa, aka a mud hut with a tin roof. I learned many of the techniques of how to effectively live a very simple life. It was beautiful to say the least. During my time in Ndama, I was able to meet with a couple of girls who, Lord willing, I will be able to meet with on a regular basis. I just want to be their friend, help them with school, and give them confidence to make wisdom decisions as a young women. I am unsure if any or them are truly believes in Christ, while I am fairly confident most of them attend Church on a regular basis. Little did I know those few moments would shape my entire weekend.

Friday evening I received a phone call that one of those girls, Aurola, tired to commit suicide. Aurola’s story is quite complex, but I will do my best to paint a picture of what brought her to that all-time low point. Aurola grew up in Angola for the majority of her childhood and this is still were her mother resides and some siblings (I am not sure exactly how big her family is; family is somewhat a lose term here.). Aurola’s father has passed away.

In 2007, Aurola came to Namibia. Currently, she is taking care of her “adopted” grandmothers (3 widowed women). Aurola is sixteen years old (seventeen on February 2nd) and had attended schooling up to grade 7 in Angola; however, moving to Namibia forced her into a school system that spoke a language she had never spoken before. She started grade 5 this past week. While living with her adopted grandmothers, Aurola has to haul water, pound pap for food, and help care for the grandmothers in return they have given her a place to live. Aurola like a good majority of teenagers struggles intensely with self-confidence, feeling loved, and the temptation to have sex. On last Friday morning when she found out that she was 30 weeks pregnant I can only imagine what she may have been feeling. While she had know for a while she had been pregnant, she wanted to “hide” it from everyone. I know she feels a lot of shame for being “impregnated” (as the locals would say) by a boy similar in age to her. On Friday morning she also found out that she could not get an abortion (her first choice- but it is illegal here). Friday night she tired to hang herself from a beam in her mud hut using a red tie that typically they wear to church.

Saturday morning I went to the hospital to visit her. As crazy as it may sound (esp to medical people) she came home with me! Yes, even though I had only really met her one time prior I knew that she would not receive any sort of great care at the hospital, so since she had been given discharge orders I offered to allow her to stay with me over the weekend.

My time with Aurola went well. We were able to bond over watching a movie, making a meal together, and cleaning all the floors. My favorite moments were doing devotions together on Saturday night and Sunday morning. She read from my Bible for a long time with me. Sharing with her not only the Gospel, but also reading verses like Psalms 139:17-18 (“How precious to me are your thoughts, O God. How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you.”) You see, Rundu is a very sandy! You could never count the grain of sand in just this city alone. It was prefect word picture.

Let my word of encouragement be to you this day. No matter what you have done or how you may still screw up the Lord’s thoughts of you outnumber all the grains of sand in the world. He is thinking and wanting to love on you constantly. Are you willing to let Him?