Immaculate - God Can Make a Way

God made a way where there seemed to be no way for one of our CGA Alumni, Immaculate.

We heard a great story from Kenya last week which made our hearts smile and showed us that God is in control.  This is a great encouragement to us because it shows that God is using the Kenyans who are filling our roles at CGA to do even greater things (more than we could do as Westerners)! 

When leaving Kenya and since returning to America, many people have asked "How will things  continue in Mbita without us."  Our answer is always that God has bigger plans than we can fathom.  We sometimes like to think that we are irreplaceable but the truth is that if God calls us to leave Kenya, then he is going to put the right people in place to continue and improve the work. 

We had tried to counsel, advise, pray and help Immaculate while we were in Kenya, but didn’t make much progress.  It didn’t take long after we left for others to jump in to help her. 

Joe taught Immaculate Akoth from the time she was in 5th grade at CGA.  She finished 8th grade at CGA and joined secondary school.  I remember visiting her several times in high school.  As a total orphan who grew up under the care of an old grandmother, her family wasn’t giving her much support and she always seemed to be in need.  Through much perseverance she graduated from high school in 2012.  She did well on her National Exams, earning a B- grade which qualified her to join university. She was one of the students selected for the first ever CGA Post-Secondary Scholarship last year. 

Immediately after high school she worked as a computer tutor, a part-time teacher and then with the Red Cross as a volunteer.  She was hoping to go to college to study accounting, but the CGA scholarship was not enough to pay for all of the tuition.  No one in her family was willing or able to contribute financially towards her education.  With few options available, she interviewed with Bridge International Academy and was selected.  Instead of using proper teachers that are trained in the Kenyan education system, Bridge International selects their own staff and provides them one month of teacher training before placing them in a classroom.  Since these schools are not properly registered like normal Kenyan schools and their teachers are not certified, they require the teachers to work a lot of hours with very little time off, and then pay them very meager salaries.  Immaculate completed the Bridge International training and was posted to teach at a school in western Kenya.  We were concerned for her because she was trapped in a low-paying job without the opportunity to go for further education.  She worked for about 9 months before her contract was terminated in August 2014.  She was a little disheartened to lose a paying job (even if it was only a little pay), yet we were a bit thankful and knew God had better plans for her.

She had no option but to come back home and live with her grandmother, who is very old now and has no steady income.  We counseled her several times and told her to continue praying and asking God to open doors.  We also challenged her that she needed to reach out to family members, her church and others in the community to see where she could receive some assistance. 

Her desire was to go to college for Accounting.  She wanted to attend the Suba Institute of Development Studies (SIDS) in Mbita to study Business Administration & Management together with Accounting.  She requested a meeting with the Director of the school and, after a lengthy talk explaining her situation, the director accepted to reduce her tuition fee.  One of our CGA staff members, Chris, asked a friend in Nairobi who was an accountant if he would be willing to assist Immaculate.  Chris’s friend ended up sending enough money to buy all of the textbooks she needed!  Immaculate also shared with her church and they raised money for her.  Another well-wisher gave her the equivalent of about $25 which was exactly the balance remaining after she received the CGA scholarship funds.  ALL of her tuition fees were covered!

When Immaculate received the news, she was so happy and could not hide it.  With a bright smile she said:

“Now I know that the Lord is true to his word in Jeremiah which says, ’For I know the plans I have for you, not to destroy you but to give you a hope and a future.’”  

We thank God for his provision and opening doors for her through numerous people.  We trust that God will provide for Immaculate in miraculous ways over the next two years while she will be in college.