Prodigal Sons and Daughters
On my previous blog post about ministry in a local prison in Senegal, a friend raised the question, "What are these women incarcerated for in the first place?" Since it's a question that comes up fairly often when we share about the work in the penitentiary, I thought I'd address that this week.
Although a variety of crimes have landed these women in prison, the two most common are drug dealing and infanticide (usually committed just after giving birth, since abortion is illegal). Let me tell you a bit of the back story behind each of these. Fatou, one of the women who attends our study (in prison for a different crime), helped me get a better idea of what drives a young woman to kill her own baby.
"When a girl comes home with all sorts of money she can't account for, her parents don't ask questions. They simply take what she shares with them and turn a blind eye to the reality of the source. But the truth is that their daughter is giving herself sexually to a man who is willing to reward her for the affection she provides. When their girl comes home pregnant, suddenly all that she had done to help provide for the family means nothing. She has brought her parents shame, and they disown her and kick her out of the house. Obviously, the guy is long gone, so the young woman finds herself in a desperate situation she sees no release from but to put an end to her baby's life upon delivery."
I don't tell this to justify a woman's drowning her own baby in the toilet, but I think it's worth understanding the plight of women bound by such crippling poverty and ignorance.
Poverty, of course, is also what drives women to the second crime I mentioned, drug dealing. In North America, when we think of drug leaders, we may visualize sleazy guys who hang out near junior high schools trying to get kids hooked on drugs. From what I understand, this is far from what these women do. The more accurate term to describe them is probably mule, which in this case refers to a person who transport drugs that have been flown to West Africa from South America on small planes along an invisible highway leading to Europe. The real demand, of course, is there. These ladies aren't pushing drugs on anyone, they're just trying to survive. Again, this doesn't make it right, but knowing their story helps me better understand the women we long to reach with the love of Christ.
As is the case whenever we as believers see people making really, really bad choices, we need to remember this simple truth: We were all once prodigal sons and daughters who were embraced by the loving arms of the Father (Luke 15:11-32). Lest I fall into the sin of the judgmental older son, I often remind myself, "There go I but by the grace of God."
Although a variety of crimes have landed these women in prison, the two most common are drug dealing and infanticide (usually committed just after giving birth, since abortion is illegal). Let me tell you a bit of the back story behind each of these. Fatou, one of the women who attends our study (in prison for a different crime), helped me get a better idea of what drives a young woman to kill her own baby.
"When a girl comes home with all sorts of money she can't account for, her parents don't ask questions. They simply take what she shares with them and turn a blind eye to the reality of the source. But the truth is that their daughter is giving herself sexually to a man who is willing to reward her for the affection she provides. When their girl comes home pregnant, suddenly all that she had done to help provide for the family means nothing. She has brought her parents shame, and they disown her and kick her out of the house. Obviously, the guy is long gone, so the young woman finds herself in a desperate situation she sees no release from but to put an end to her baby's life upon delivery."
I don't tell this to justify a woman's drowning her own baby in the toilet, but I think it's worth understanding the plight of women bound by such crippling poverty and ignorance.
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| Rembrandt's Painting "The Return of the Prodigal Son |
As is the case whenever we as believers see people making really, really bad choices, we need to remember this simple truth: We were all once prodigal sons and daughters who were embraced by the loving arms of the Father (Luke 15:11-32). Lest I fall into the sin of the judgmental older son, I often remind myself, "There go I but by the grace of God."
Thanks for sharing more with us about the culture. These posts are so interesting. And it's true no matter where you are in the world, though circumstances and responses (like these crimes) are different, human nature is the same. People here living in poverty also do desperate crimes like transporting drugs or prostitution. Thank you for going into the prisons and giving them hope, and not rejecting them as people do (but Christ hasn't).
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