Page 11 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 3

ISSUE THREE | NOV/DEC
This was not an early on I got my sense of security
interview. This was a from my parents. However, they Praise God! Amen. Everything
healing ministration separated when I was about 12 is Excellent.
of God disguised as an or 13 (their marriage was later I think for me the hardest thing
interview. We sat with restored, after 19 years). I think for was letting go of my dream and
Jacky in her home and me that started a journey of a lot who I thought I would be. There
of uncertainty and fear of rejection
I thought I was going to become
talked. There were tears and abandonment. Maybe in our this Pharmacist that was approved
and prayers and there community in Afrika, we don’t of in the UK, as if somehow it
was thanksgiving and really put things on the table and kind of makes you better than the
comforting. just discuss them - it just was what Pharmacist that’s trained here.
Chioma Phillips it was - so I learnt how to live this When it didn’t happen for me I
new life. just felt really lost and betrayed by
I went to high school, continued God, because I had this notion that
Tell us about yourself, who on as a normal young girl, got once you serve God and once you
into relationships, had my heart
you are… your journey of give your life to Christ, everything
broken for the first time, thought is supposed to work out, you’re not
faith with God.
the world was over and then supposed to have any persecution
My name is Jacqueline Wairimu
quickly realized it wasn’t. After or pain. God forbid. You know,
Gachihi. I am a woman of God, high school, I did my A-Level
who has finally found her purpose, everybody says, “Praise God!”
equivalent in a co-ed platform. “Amen.” “Everything is excellent.”
through a lot of pain. I’m a mom
That was my first experience with So I wasn’t so sure where I was
of two beautiful girls, who I was
boys, it really destabilized me; I supposed to take what I was
told I couldn’t have because I had
only have one sibling, a sister and feeling.
endometriosis and I said, well, we are very close. I then went to
“God’s report at the end of the I could have stayed on and become
University in the UK, that’s where an undocumented immigrant and I
day is what I live by.” I’m a mom of
I was doing Pharmacy. That was a had the opportunity. There was a
many, because of Toto Care Box
very exciting and also a very scary council flat found for me and a job
Africa Trust, I’m also a Doula, a
time, I hadn’t really lived away and I could just stay there and start
childbirth educator and a breast from home, except for a brief stint
feeding consultant, all recent life afresh. Something in my heart
in high school. said, you know you came with a
changes in what I have done.
One of the things that I will forever purpose, to be of help to people at
I have come to understand that my
be grateful for about the UK is home and so it didn’t resonate with
purpose in life is transformation, but
that, that is where I gave my life to me to just disappear. I said, “Okay,
I guess I couldn’t be used at all until Christ, in my second year. I literally
I went through my own personal Lord. I don’t understand why and I
threw myself into the things of don’t understand why now and why
transformation. When I think about
God and reading the word; I had a me, but I’m going to trust you and
my journey of how I was searching
hunger and a thirst and a passion I’m going to go home.” I stayed on
for meaning, fulfillment, God; for
for the word. I was a member of for one year, I worked and I saved
a long time I searched in people, this church in the UK where I was
things and places. The external up enough money to pay for my
the only black girl in the choir, University in Uganda, but I didn’t
journey reached a point where it
at one point I was running Bible realize just how broken my heart
became an internal journey and I
Study Fellowship. But things was. I looked at my friends around
think that for me that’s where the
weren’t to go as smoothly as I me, everybody finished and they
transformation has really come thought. Around that time, the
from. stayed on and they got jobs there
Kenyan shilling to the Pound and just this whole rosy picture of
plummeted, and for reasons life and I really wanted that, but it
Childhood, School, Meeting
beyond my control, I couldn’t wasn’t for me at that time.
the Lord complete my course. I dropped
I was brought up in the Catholic out and transferred my credits to a
faith and I went to a convent University, Marriage,
University in Uganda, having first Motherhood
school, so I’ve always been
tried a University in Kenya, which
around God and His principles denied my request. Those were Many people were not for the idea
and word. My family was and still very difficult times for me because of me coming home, ‘What are you
is very deeply rooted in the things that was the beginning of the taste coming home for? There’s nothing
of God. I remember wanting to to come home to. You’ve had the
of a disparity between the reality opportunity, not many people get
be a nun at a very early age; but
and what I want.
God had a journey for me that to go, why are you coming back?’ I
said, ‘because I trust that God has
was beyond what I thought. Very
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