Luke 6:38 says, “Give, and it shall be given unto you: good measure, pressed down and shaken together…” I want to tell you a story about the way only the Lord can “press down and shake together” so that the fulfillment of a thing is overflowing.
We met Judith when she was just four years old. She was the doggone cutest little girl. I cannot believe I remember her (cuz age is a funny thing). She and her brother, Dan, were among our first boarders at Visions Link School. Monday, hours before we left, in the middle of all of the distractions (Aidan was still sick, we were grappling with needing to pack, say goodbyes, wrap up projects…all the last-minute things), Samuel asked me if I would sit and speak with “Judy.” I had NO IDEA who he was talking about, but I did not want to be rude; so I grudgingly said yes. A few minutes later, I was looking at this beautiful young lady via WhatsApp, trying to figure out who she was and why she wanted to talk to me. As she started to speak with me, I had an inkling of who she might be and asked if she had a brother named Dan. I could not believe that this was little Judith – all grown up! She asked if she could share a testimony and for the next thirty minutes, Sarayah, Samuel, and I were privileged to listen to this sweet girl’s story. With her permission I am going to share it here:
Judith (Judy) was three and half years old when her father passed away; her brother was two and half. Her mother was not well, and the family of the father knew she would not be able to provide for herself and her children. So, after they had buried their brother, they made a plan to come back that night, lock the children and mother in the house, and set fire to it so that they would not have the responsibility of providing for them. One of Samuel’s church members heard about their plans and told Samuel. He and a friend went immediately to the house and asked the mother if she would allow them to take the children. She agreed and gave the children to Samuel. That is when they came to live at Vision Link. Judy has always been bright and very protective of Dan. I remember her carrying him around on her back, brushing off his clothes when they were dirty, and always watching over him – even at that tender age of 4. Tom and I have had a front-row seat to this young lady’s life; But it had been nine years since I had seen her and so she filled in the gaps for me.
As she progressed through school, she continued to do well. Members of the community who have known her and watched her grow, supported her through her education and she eventually was able to go to university to study to be a teacher. The Lord’s hand has always been on her. It is not common for someone in her circumstances to be able to achieve these goals.
But God…
I want to take a quick moment to share this – please don’t miss it. Sometimes we might believe that God doesn’t care about us as individuals – well, strap in:
Last year (Judy’s Junior year), Judy ran out of money and had to ask for an extension on her payment. Because she had such good grades and was active on campus, she was given a very rare extension. When it came time to pay and continue, she still did not have all that was need. She was 44,000ksh behind on her bill. That’s roughly $350usd…an insurmountable amount for Judy. In tears, she called her Baba (it means “daddy” and it what she and many other call Samuel) and told him that she was ashamed and scared that she would need to leave school. Even though she works a job and attends full-time classes, she could not earn enough to pay her bill. Samuel immediately called the church and went out into the community to see if he could gather enough to pay some of the bill and hopefully keep her in school. In the meantime, while Judy was waiting to meet with the financial officer, she met a young mother who was being asked to leave school because she was behind on her bill. Her husband had been killed in a car accident, and she had gone to university so that she could find a good job to provide for her children. She was an orphan and had no family to help her. She was wrecked. Turns out, she also deeply loves the Lord, and Judy and she started praying together that somehow, they could stay in school. After two days, Samuel had raised 22,000ksh from his own pocket, the church, and the community in Soweto. He headed to the school to see if he could negotiate with the financial officer so that Judy could finish the year. When he arrived and gave the guards his ID, they told him that the head of the college wanted to meet with him. He told us that he was nervous and unsure of what this could be about.
When Judy met up with Samuel, she told him about the young widow and said, “Baba, I know that this money would mean I could stay in school, but God wants us to pay for this girl to finish her education.” Samuel tried to talk her out of it, but she insisted that the Lord was asking them to help this widow. So, they went to the office paid her debt – it was exactly 18,000ksh. They now only had 2,000ksh to negotiate with and they were late for their meeting with the headmaster…but first they went and told the young lady that her bill had been paid in full – She could not believe it!
When Samuel introduced himself to the headmaster, he said the man told him that he had heard what they had done. He also had heard Judy share her testimony during the last college youth night and that she had a good reputation on campus and he wanted to help her stay. He said he was going to put 20,000khs of his own on her bill so that she could stay another month and hopefully find a way to pay the rest – “Give and it shall be given…”
They shook hands and left his office and went back to Judith’s dorm room where the young widow was waiting. They spent the next 3 hours lying on their faces (literally) thanking the Lord for His provision and asking Him to provide the remaining money needed. After 3 hours, they hugged and said goodbye. When Samuel stopped at the gate to sign out, he said eight security officers met him at his car and asked him to get out. He had no idea what was going on. He said they started asking him all kinds of questions and they had a long conversation. The head of security for the campus then told him that they had heard what Judy had done and that Judy (and two other students from Soweto who attended there) had a good influence on campus and that they decided collectively that they wanted to give their entire salary for the month – THE WHOLE MONTH! – to help with Judy’s bill. That’s 16,000ksh – “pressed down” – They made him call the financial officer and do the transfer before he left because they could tell he could not believe that they would give so freely of so much money for a girl they hardly knew. With tears streaming down his face, Samuel left campus with Judy’s remaining balance being only 4,000ksh – which he paid off with his next paycheck.
Judy graduates today, Wednesday, with a degree in education. She is the first graduating class to be taught the entire new government-mandated curriculum; which means she has been training our staff in the new curriculum, saving us a ton of financial resources, time, and keeping us in compliance. She already has a position lined up at a government school, which means she will be earning a good wage. I asked her what made her choose teaching and she said, “I realized at a very young age that I would not be who am I without my education and I felt in that moment that Lord asking me to teach. I determined then that I would become a teacher and come back to Soweto so that other kids like me would know that they have a future.” And then she looked me straight in the face and said, “Go home and tell every single person who prayed for us, who gave even a dollar, that I am alive because they gave and prayed. I should be dead or a prostitute or a drug addict, but God used Vision Link and my Baba (Pastor Samuel) to save my brother and I – “shaken together.”
Judy plans to teach at both her government school and Vision Link School in the next 2025 term. Her brother, Dan, is doing very well and is finishing his last year in secondary school. (high school)
Our lives are ripples…as the first slips away, the next one takes up the broader journey. The world is vast, and the stories are sometimes hard. But always we have a Baba who sees us and cares for us. He saw Judy when He planted the seed of We Are Kenya in the hearts of those who started the work. He saw her when He watered the hands and feet of Samuel and his wife and called them to a slum full of unimaginable pain and poverty. He saw her as He tended the garden of her fragile four-year-old heart and preserved her life. He sees her even now, as He uses her to plant a new harvest.
Lovingly,
Rebecca
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