Scovia

Our first True Love Waits presentation was at Mandela Secondary School in mid-February. During the presentation, we make our case for saving sex for marriage, explaining that:
• God’s plan for sex is one man and one woman for life
• when you have sex with someone, you are also connecting yourself to everyone they have been exposed to, including their partners’ partners (people you may have never even met!)
• condoms do not provide effective protection from diseases, especially when they aren’t used the right way every time, as is usually the case with teenagers.
At the end of each presentation, we tell students when we will be back on campus to talk to them about making a decision to remain pure, and to talk to them about any questions they have.

After the presentation at Mandela, a young girl named Scovia came up to me to ask for advice. As she explained her situation in Ugandan English, which is nothing like American English, I pieced together that she was in a sexual relationship with a boy from home. She said she knew she needed to stop, but she was afraid that he would pressure and force her if she tried to end the relationship. Completely at a loss, I told her to be up front with the boy and tell him she wanted to end that part of their relationship. If he refused, she should talk to someone at home to try to help her. Of course, she was worried that her mother would be angry with her, but I tried to encourage her that if her mother knew she wanted to end the relationship, she would try to help her. (And all the time, I’m praying that I’m telling her the right thing… talk about on-the-job training!)

We went back to Mandela a couple of weeks ago for our small group, and Scovia came. (It was the first time I had seen her since that first day.) Before the group started, she came over to me and told me that when she went home, she talked to the boy and told him she didn’t want to be involved any longer. She was also honest with her mother, and her mother was encouraging and helping her! Praise the Lord! In the times that we’ve been at Mandela since then, Scovia has been in the forefront, and is being open about her decision to follow God’s plan for purity and to try to live as a Godly young woman. She is one of the leaders in her class, and she and her friends are part of the core group of young women we work with on campus.

Please pray for Scovia, that she will continue to pursue purity and become a young woman who chases after God.