Like a Caged Bird

We made our first local friend!! Yesterday we had lunch with her (that's how Senegalese show they care...they feed you) and today we had her over to our house for lunch. We had tacos because she'd never had American food before...and because all of us girls miss Mexican food like no other. But that's beside the point. So this friend of ours...we will call her A.

A is brilliant (she speaks French, Wolof, English, some Chinese and some Spanish. She attends university here and plans to soon study for her masters). And driven. And something about her makes me love her. And she's lost. So so lost. A is a devout Muslim. Most Muslims here have no knowledge of what they believe. But A does...to some extent. She knows what she believes unless you ask why she complies to certain rules. And then she's at a loss. Why? Because it's a sin to question the commands of Allah or Mohammad. A plans to marry a man who already has a wife and 3 kids because she loves him, so she has no other option but to accept it. To accept a life filled with competition, jealousy and rejection. She wears a hijab always because it is "compulsory" for her to hide her beauty. She wakes every morning at 5am because she must pray.

My heart breaks for A and all the women like her. Women who don't know the freedom Christ has to offer. Women who live their lives like caged birds because they think that's all there is and that's all they deserve or are allowed. Women like A who seek knowledge and love in all the wrong places because they just know they're empty. Women searching for a Savior they think they've already found.

Please join me in praying for A and all the women around the world just like her. Women who I live amongst. Women just like you and me. Women who need freedom. Women who need Jesus.