Christy Price, missionary and Butterfly leader in Nairobi, Kenya sent this powerful testimony following her first LUV Discipleship training in Orlando. Christy and her sister Jody minister to women and teens in the slums of Nairobi. Her report paints a vivid picture of ministry in Africa and how Jesus alone is their answer for broken hearts...
I have often been asked why we are not with a larger organization in Africa. Wouldn’t it be safer for us? Wouldn’t we have better support? While the answer to both these questions are “yes,” the fact remains, while most of the world’s largest humanitarian aid projects focus on Africa, there is little to no change in the problems facing Africans today.
1 in 3 women are raped every 30 seconds. The number of orphans due to HIV/AIDS, malaria, war, and poverty, still reach into the millions. The continent continues to see a rise in violent crimes and tribal clashes involving ethnic cleansing, despite the thousands of aid workers, the peace corp., the UN, and millions of dollars being invested in projects to end malaria and other diseases.
After being involved in Africa for nearly five years now, we have come to realize most organizations, though there with the best of intentions, are trying to solve a God sized issue with a man-made solution. In fact, most well known organizations are hurting Africa more as their efforts increase.
Since Jody and I started working with orphaned teenage girls in Kenya in 2010, we quickly discovered that meeting the overwhelming physical needs of our girls was not bringing the inner healing they so desperately needed. Even though we poured our resources and finances into their problems, they continued to be held prisoners by their bitterness, their hatred, and their insatiable greed for things that could not satisfy their deepest longings.
Even rehabilitated girls, went back to the brothels and back to their drugs, their abusive boyfriends, and the streets. They continued to be involved in witchcraft and hate crimes against rival tribes.
We failed to give them the only thing they needed….Jesus Christ.
After starving crowds of people found Jesus when He had gone away to pray, Jesus told them, “The truth is, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you saw the miraculous sign.” John 6:26.
“I am the bread of life. No one who comes to me will ever be hungry again. Those who believe in me will never thirst.”John 6:33.34
We can feed the hungry physical food and still see the same problems exist the next day, the next week, and the following year. Our assistance with school fees, feeding programs, and donations, were putting temporary band aids on broken hearts. Our helping hands never stopped the source of the bleeding; in fact, our aide perpetuated the problems our girls faced.
That is when God re-directed us to LoveUnVeiled, a movement of God reaching thousands of women and girls in the worst conditions in India and Asia with the life-saving message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
It is often said that you cannot solve the problems of a broken society until you heal the broken hearted. Only the life transforming love of Jesus Christ can reach into a woman’s wounded and lonely heart and heal her from the deepest part of her being.
Love UnVeiled was totally unique from any organization we heard of since it first involved our own deep encounter with the healer of hearts.
Jody was the first to attend a Love UnVeiled discipleship training in December of 2013 where God did a miraculous inner healing in her own heart. Transformed into God’s image of beauty, she returned to Kenya with a new heart and a fresh outlook on the problems our girls faced.
She trained me using Love UnVeiled materials, where for the first time in many years of discouragement, I began to see breakthrough in my own outlook, as God healed my own heart from the many wounds I had received from other women in the mission field. We both went back to the U.S. to receive further Love UnVeiled training, which not only solidified us in God’s truths, but also provided a safe environment among other women for healing.
Love UnVeiled uses God’s example in nature of the transformation of a caterpillar to a butterfly to illustrate the hundreds of Bible verses which teach us what being made into the image of Christ should look like in our lives.
Most women around the world believe they are unlovable, worth nothing, and of no value in society, even Christian women. They are living like caterpillars, when God already transformed them into the image of Christ when they first believed in Him. But because most women continue to live in the lies of the Enemy, they are not soaring in the freedom of Christ as the beautiful butterflies God has made them.
As we discover who we are in Christ, the Lord always brings up to the surface incorrect belief systems we have had about our self -worth. In discovering these lies, we renounce them and receive God’s deep inner healing. As He has healed our own hearts, we in turn, go out as transformed butterflies to spread God’s message of love and hope to the hurting women in the slums of Kenya.
Jody and I have already held our first Love UnVeiled workshop training in Kenya. This is what we discovered in our time with Christian women and teen age girls referring to our lesson in Genesis 2:
“I never knew we women were created, along with men, in the image of God.” – Church Evangelism Leader
“I had always heard that Jesus was my treasure, I never realized I was His treasure.” – Leader of a ministry to street women
“We women put ourselves so low, when God puts us so high!” – Former House Helper (Live-in servant)
“Now I know I am wonderful to God.” – 14 year old girl
We women in Kenya are discovering together, that only Christ can heal the broken hearted. And only through God healing the broken hearted will we see Africa transformed!
-Christy Price, Butterfly leader, Kenya Dec 2013.