After 24 years of marriage and finding myself in the wreckage of a divorce, I was determined to make my life something bigger than that life event, and I was adamant that bitterness would not reign over my future.
Some thought it was a radical decision, but I saved enough money to leave for 6 months, store my belongings, quit my job, change my name, and travel alone to Africa with pure faith and trust.
I ended up volunteering and working alongside an organization in South Africa that rescued children who had been raped, a nightmare epidemic in many African countries today.
The cases of rape were unfathomable and painfully brutal, but the bigger story became that of Africa, its women, and its children—their resilience and their willingness to still see beauty and grace in a world that had seemingly scorned them in many ways.
Despite their lives of slavery, poverty, brutality, and oppression, they still praised the earth and the sky and thanked God for the air they breathed.
The respectful sisterhood they held onto taught me a great deal about the strength and courage we possess when we are bound together.
Kindness, compassion, respect for others, and the absolute obligation we all have to protect children… this is not heroic—it is our responsibility as human beings and to life itself.
