27/10/2026
Free from Shame: What Happened When 73 Women Gathered in Gulu
At PDN's Chosen, Clean and Clothed women's training in Gulu, northern Uganda, 73 women named the shame they had carried in silence and walked out free.
Some of the women would not come inside.
They had been invited, and they had registered. But when they reached the hotel in Gulu where PDN's Chosen, Clean and Clothed training was being held, they stopped at the door. Something in them said this place was not for someone like them. They did not believe they deserved to be there.
That is what shame does. It decides who belongs before any word has been spoken.
A training built on a book, and a conviction
Chosen, Clean and Clothed is based on the book by Lucy Foster, PDN's Women's Ministry partner. In Gulu she led the training alongside PDN Women's Ministry Coordinator Dr. Rose Mugabi. In the end, 73 women took their seats and began to look honestly at one of the heaviest burdens a woman can carry.
"I didn't know what it was"
Many of the women came carrying something they could not name.
Betty Adong (name changed) said she had felt something holding her back for years but never knew what it was. By the end of the training she did. "Today I discovered it was shame," she shared. "I'm glad to know this truth that has set me free."
Freda Apiio (name changed) had never understood why she pulled away from people or why negativity seemed to follow her. She had not realized it was rooted in her circumstances. Then she opened her heart and shared, and the shame began to lose its grip. "I have come to believe that shame survives in silence and grows in silence," she said.
Patience Aromo (name changed) carried the consequences of her past and the pain of a marriage that had wounded her deeply. She left with a different story. "I am grateful to God that He has washed me clean from shame," she said. "I have received my freedom to serve my God."
Mercy Akello (name changed) needed only one thing: the reassurance that God's love is unconditional. "I just needed this," she said. "Thank you for the training."
The woman who could not say it:
Partway through the training, a pastor's wife stood up. Something terrible had happened to her, she said, but she had never been able to tell anyone.
She was gently encouraged to find the courage to speak to someone she trusts, because shame thrives in secrecy.
By the end of the training, she was a different woman. Her demeanor had completely changed, and she was praising God with her whole heart.
Another pastor's wife spoke of shame that had consumed her after she lost her marriage, her pregnancy with twins, and her job. She knows she cannot change the past, she said. But she now looks to her future "with new eyes," eyes of confidence and renewed hope.
Wounds that run the deepest:
Among the women were two returnees from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Abducted by rebel forces, they had endured years of atrocities. Their bodies still carry bullet wounds, and some of what they suffered began in childhood, including sexual assault. For years they had lived with pain that told them who they were.
But in that room, they heard what God says about them. They left with their hearts set free, ready to serve the Lord without shame, without embarrassment, and without regret. They now know that what God has called clean, no one can call unclean.
What shame cannot survive:
The women of Gulu did not leave with a new past. They left with new eyes for seeing it, and for seeing themselves. What had ruled them in silence lost its power once it was spoken.
That is the heart of PDN's women's ministry; to help women come out of hiding and see themselves as God does. They are chosen, clean and clothed.
How you can be part of this
Pray for the women of Gulu as they return to their homes, churches and communities, free to serve and unashamed.
Share this story with someone who needs to know that shame does not get the final word.
Connect with PDN to learn how the Women's Ministry can reach women in your church or region.
