Mountains of Love and Service in The Gambia

“I wouldn’t want to stop doing good until the day God will call me.”

Meet Jacinta! She is the leader of the Big Ocean Women WAVE in The Gambia in Africa[1]. I had the privilege of interviewing her on Zoom and was deeply blessed by her example of creating solutions for the many challenges women face in her African nation.

In their WAVE, founded in November 2023, seven to ten members meet on the third Wednesday of every month at a school in the central part of the city where one of the members works.

“We start with prayers. Then we take up the tenet for the month[2]. We always identify a scripture in the Bible that also support the tenets we are discussing for that month…then everybody will make contributions as to what they have understood from the discussion or what they think or how we are applying the topic for the month to ourselves and how it has helped us…to relate to others and how we can also use it to reach out to our environment at large. [Then] we try to go back to refresh everybody’s memory of what doing charity work is. So, we make sure that everybody is on the same page.”

Jacinta explained that initially they had 24 members register, but some stopped attending when they realized they were the ones who would be going out to serve others, not the ones who would be receiving handouts from others. And Jacinta and her friends have certainly been very intentional in showing that they are leading out in making a difference for good in their community. They begin their service each month by supporting one another in their WAVE.

“We also check on one another to see that everyone, even though they are not in attendance, is fine. Then sometimes people will come with maybe different problems, maybe troubles and issues they want somebody to talk to…So, we give that opportunity for us to communicate with ourselves without judging and then encourage each other and draw strength from one another…It’s very important because sometimes people are just overwhelmed with so many challenges…You must pay attention and also support them emotionally.”

Then the discussion moves to how they can work together to make a difference in their communities.

“We set our priorities in terms of how we want to impact our environment, what we want to change, things we really want to do to show that we are extending love…Because charity for me is the work of God and is a ministry and it’s all about living the life of Christ, which entails you sacrificing and being available to make it count for another person without your personal gain. So, we put our heads together and think about whom we need to go to.”

This amazing group of women has helped neighbor women and their children with pressing needs, provided baby clothing and encouragement to dozens of destitute women and their new babies in the maternity ward of the hospital, and educated young girls in local schools about womanhood and provided hygiene supplies. These events aren’t just about helping with temporal needs. Jacinta shared with me how important it is to connect with people and strengthen them in their hearts and minds. Of a return trip to the local school, Jacinta said,

“We went back to give moral support to the young girls, to the teenagers…We gather them to educate them more on their personal hygiene, personal cleanliness, and also on how to conduct themselves as women. So, in each visit, we try to discuss our tenets because it’s one of the things that guides us. And it’s something that we are really pleased by because every woman who follows the tenets, I believe. You will, you’ll be able to stay focused and do the right thing.”

Jacinta believes holidays are important times to share love. For Christmas of 2024, the Gambian WAVE of Big Ocean Women planned an outreach event for an entire underprivileged community that included educational games and activities for young children, classes for older girls on health, sanitation, and womanhood, and a discussion for adults on promoting good relationships and a stronger community. The WAVE women and their children traveled to the community by boat and spent the day connecting, talking, playing, eating, and dancing together with their new friends. They were also able to share Christmas gifts of clothing, food, or household supplies with each person.

Jacinta helps lead her WAVE in community efforts, but she also takes seriously her desire to live out her Christian faith by ministering and mentoring women one by one. Through church, she met a young woman in her early 20’s from Liberia.

“So, this girl, what she does was to hop oranges. Oranges and then lemons and just local foods. So, what she used to do is to put those oranges on the tray, put it on her head and then move around the streets, asking people to buy. But I look at it and I see this is not sustainable. And it exposed her to even more danger…This is the cheapest way whereby men can lure you to themselves. Somebody can call you, and before you know it, they will initiate you to something that’s maybe into drugs or into prostitution. So, I saw her. I interacted with her and she told me yes that she would want to do other things but because she doesn’t have the money or any support from anywhere; that’s why she’s taking the oranges. So, I say, ‘What do you think you can do to train yourself so that even when you leave Gambia, the skill you have acquired will sustain you and you can apply it?’ She says she would be happy to do hairdressing.”

Jacinta is actively working to explore options and financial support for this young woman to learn a skill that will change the trajectory of her life. They are working to provide different solutions to the challenges of her life that she would not have had on her own. Recently, the young woman waited for Jacinta after church to share how excited she is to start and to be a part of this. Jacinta’s husband even commented that he could see the joy and hope on her face.

“This weekend, I will go with her to her home to see where she lives and I’ll bring her to my house. I want to have that relationship with her. At least that will help me to monitor her progress and how well she’s able to adapt to everything we have said. She seems responsible. I’m trusting God that at least with this, she can make a good life for herself. So we need money to get her enrolled in a skill center and then after her training, she will need to be settled. So that will depend on how we will want her to start off. Maybe it’s in a small way…like a salon.”

Jacinta feels very strongly about the strong personal connection and how important that is in helping others grow and change. She shared why she chooses to live this way.

“It’s very important in life. Sometimes many people have tried and failed because there is nobody to encourage them to motivate them to stand up…It is one thing for you to be given an opportunity and another thing for you to be successful with that little opportunity you have. In my life I’ve learned that there are many ways many would have made it, but there was nobody to stand by them, nobody to encourage, nobody to support them. So, society looks at them as a failure.  [They need someone to] care enough to say, oh, how are you today? How is your business going? How is your work going? Are you having challenges? Is there anything I can do for you? It makes a lot of differences. I had some challenges growing up. So, for me, I don’t think I would want anybody to go through what I went through, because many may not stand it. Many may not come out successfully. Sometimes I look at, I look at myself, I say, ‘God, it has only been you,’ and truly God has been by my side. I’ve had so many opportunities to get discouraged, to fail in life, but by the special grace of God, he kept me. And each time I have one problem, one trauma, one challenge, I give it to God.”

Jacinta went on to explain:

“Sometimes I ask myself, ‘Oh, you are committing so much to people, who is the one committing to you?’ I say it is God. He has my back. He’s got my back. So, through thick, through thin, I know he didn’t let me fail because everything in my life while I was growing up gave me the reason to be a failure, but through his grace, he made me who I am today and I am very grateful. The only way I can give back to him or to show my gratitude is to be able to stand in the gap for someone, to be able to support someone, to be able to encourage someone, to ask someone not to give up. Even when it seems as if it’s not working, it will eventually work…So that’s why for me, I can’t stop anywhere I am. I try not to stop and look at limitations, look at challenges, look at roadblocks. I see God in it and that keeps me going every day.”

Jacinta led her WAVE to share this light and love with about 35 to 40 female prisoners in the central prison in The Gambia, a population of women they determined were forgotten and in need of care. They decided that Valentine’s Day was the most fitting time to share their love. Jacinta worked ahead of time to get permission, make connections with administrators and others serving in the prison, and visit with many of the women to determine who they were and what their needs were.

“They have one house rule. The house rule is that we do not judge. So, no matter the offense one has committed, you don’t judge them like that. You don’t talk about it. So, we made the atmosphere very, very friendly, very open, very safe, and they were able to confide in us. So I interacted with all of them.”

As a Nigerian native, Jacinta shared how meaningful it was for her to connect personally with six of the women there who were also from Nigeria. She explained that many felt abandoned and hopeless, but that shared connection and understanding helped them feel happy.

Jacinta returned on Valentine’s Day with her fellow WAVE members with all the fixings for a party, as well as the supplies, Christian books, and Bible the women had requested. Once again, they enjoyed connecting, talking, eating, and dancing together with their new friends.  They shared the food and gifts, but they also shared their hearts.

 ”One of the things we did was we asked them, in your down moments, what do you do to lift your spirits? When you are depressed, when you are feeling lonely, when you are sad, you need to identify one thing that makes you happy, that keeps you going, that keeps you holding on. So, everyone identified a strength that they have…It was so emotional. We were like, you know, the tears were coming. So, every one of them, including us who visited, we identified our one strength we have that keeps us going. Some say that whenever they are depressed, they dance or say they sing out loud.”

They shared about the Big Ocean Women tenets, particularly the one for February, “We are each unique and innately worthy of respect.” They applied it to the discussion and how they could live this principle now in their lives in the prison.

“We want everybody to respect each other. So, if you see this one singing, don’t say you are disturbing me. Allow her to sing because that’s what will give her relief at that moment. If you see this one very quiet, just know that she’s trying to overcome her pain. Allow her to be quiet, don’t disturb her…If you can draw strength from the discussion that we are having, then you can meditate and then reflect on it. And before you know it, you are more motivated, more energized, and you’re able to do more. So, at the end of this, I told them, I asked them what they understood by you being unique and you are worthy of respect. So, I asked one by one…They were open and very honest.”

Jacinta loves teaching and talking about the Big Ocean Women tenets with women and girls everywhere. This special gathering of women in a prison in The Gambia on Valentine’s Day illustrated that beautifully.

As our time together ended, Jacinta offered a heartfelt prayer that powerfully described our tenet for March.

“…Thank you for the outreach, the global outreach all over the world, wherever Big Ocean Women is planted. O Lord. Thank you because we’ll continue to make a great impact and bring positive changes to the world in the mighty name of Jesus. God, especially I want to thank you for The Gambia, where I am, O Lord. Father, with your help, I know that we can move mountains here…”

Jacinta and her WAVE are moving mountains of challenges in her nation and modeling for others how uniting as global sisters we can continue in this great work together.

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[1] A WAVE (Women Achieving Vast Empowerment) is a formally organized group of women in a particular geographic location who meet regularly to discuss Big Ocean Women’s monthly tenet and work together to implement those teachings in their individual lives and communities.

[2] Big Ocean Women’s mission and purpose is reflected in 12 tenet statements, and the organization focuses on one specific tenet each month. The tenets are reviewed each year, emphasizing the principle that we teach and learn best developmentally through repeated exposure to powerful truths.