For most girls, there is something inherently sacred about that first high school prom. Here in Uganda, it usually arrives at the Senior Four mark, a season where the average teenager is navigating the fragile world between fifteen and seventeen. It is almost the very first time young ladies step out into the world wearing the vivid picture of the women they hope to become.

Oftentimes, for the girls, it is a whole lot more serious than it is for the boys. A prom dress isn’t just fabric; it taps directly into their self-esteem, their confidence, and their overall stature in their small society.

Rebecca Mirembe Kisakye carried that exact kind of trembling excitement for her own first prom. She looked forward to it with an eager, open heart. However, in that precise moment, as she was trying to figure out what outfit could carry her dreams, a friend—or was she really a friend?—uttered words that would ultimately change the trajectory of her life.

“I don’t think there are any clothes that can fit you!”

Those words hit her like a cold dagger right to the heart. Words possess a tremendous, almost terrifying power; they have a deep capability to affect our lives. It is worthy to note that at this particular point in time, most adolescents are already battling heavy insecurities as they navigate the rocky transition to adulthood. To have such words hurled at you in that definitive moment can be likened to opening a heavy music video to play on your phone at full volume when your battery level is sitting at a desperate 3%.

To truly understand the depth of what those words did to Rebecca, we have to step back into her childhood.

Rebecca spent most of her early years under the care of a single mother, growing up alongside her four siblings. Her mother, who ran a small salon, did everything humanly possible to provide for her children, constantly striving to hand them a better life than the one she had known. Her strength and perseverance were exceptional, but this didn’t mean the road was smooth.

She spent most of her time helping out at her mother’s salon and right from a young age, she admired models on the runway. The unshakeable confidence they moved with was something that truly captivated her. But even more than the confidence, it was the outfits. Whereas in those moments she was a million miles away from an actual runway, she turned to the pages of a simple book, making sketches for dresses straight from her imagination.

The people around her watched her draw and assumed she was simply an artist in the making. But it was deeper than mere art; she was structuring clothes. A quiet spark was being struck in the middle of absolute nothingness.

To try and give her daughter a better shot at life, her mother had struggled and sacrificed to place Rebecca in a good school in Namugongo for her O-Level. For her mother, this was a way of placing Rebecca in an environment of advantage—a school where she would interact with society’s finest, open up doors for her future, and hopefully stand tall among them.

Unfortunately, as Rebecca joined the school, the desire her mother held was a far cry from the reality she experienced. She was constantly bullied and made to feel like she belonged to a lower class in society. Time and again, she was reminded that her mother was a mere salon owner and not anyone ‘big’ in the world.

It didn’t help matters that for the greater part of her school life, she and her siblings were perpetual school fees defaulters, or that academically, she didn’t sit in that highly cherished top percentile of students. It was incredibly difficult for her. Yet, she persevered through those four years of O-Level.

It was against this exact background of endurance that those wounding words were said to her as she prepared for her prom.

Even with these words said to her, Rebecca sat down and sketched out the dress she would wear for her prom.

She approached a tailor friend who looked at the drawing and graciously brought the sketch to life. Crafted from vibrant kitenge, it was the very first time a design of hers moved from a conceptual sketch in a book into living, breathing actuality.

And that dress she wore earned her a nomination for Prom Queen. She was among three nominees for the top Prom title because of a dress she had sketched herself. The ‘friend’ who had assured her no dress would fit her? She was not among the nominations.

Rebecca didn’t take home the crown that night, but that single nomination was the undeniable turning point of her life. She realized, for the very first time, the sheer armor of confidence that fashion could provide.

It is a mystery beyond the human mind how moments meant for harm can be turned around by God to become the very moments that propel one to greatness.

The ignition of this fashion spark would see Rebecca hold her very first fashion show while in A-Level. She never went back to the school in Namugongo. Instead, she persuaded her mother to change her—something her mother never truly liked—and went to a school in Jinja for her A-Level. True to her persuasion, in the new school, she felt more at peace.

It was in this school that she got the first taste of a runway as she designed clothes for a school fashion show. She made designs for the models from only lesu—a traditional, rectangular piece of printed cotton fabric widely used across East Africa.

By this point in time, Rebecca was getting more certain of her love for fashion. So much so that, in fact, she made up her mind not to join the university. She wanted to pursue the path of fashion from that point onwards. This, however, was nowhere acceptable to her mother, who believed that for one to be called educated, they must have studied until the university.

During her vacation, she turned to God to seek direction.

Her desire was pointing in a certain direction, and her mother’s desire was pointing in another. She turned to God to pray. Rebecca had a personal relationship with God—a relationship that dated back to when she was much younger, as her mother introduced her and her siblings to Him. It was a relationship that hereafter had seen her elder sister, Tendo Maria, lead her to the saving power of Jesus Christ.

But it had become entirely personal after an encounter she had while still in O-Level.

As Rebecca battled the time in her O-Level—navigating bullying, struggling academics, self-esteem, and financial challenges—she felt tired. She felt exhausted. She felt fed up. One afternoon, while outside in the school compound, she looked to God in desperation for a sign that her life was worth something. That her life wasn’t a mistake.

Almost immediately after making this prayer cry, rain from the sky fell. There had been no warning of rain before that; no dark clouds in the sky. And it was very heavy rain.

Rebecca got up and danced in that rain.

It was a sign for her. Her life was worth something. Her life wasn’t a mistake. God had a plan for her. She danced in the rain, like a child after hearing the promise of her Father. And that same day, as she moved back to her classroom, she noticed a Bible that had been hit by the rain. But there was something peculiar: it was open and stuck wet. As Rebecca got close to retrieve it, her eyes were drawn to a verse on the open page:

Say to those who are brokenhearted, do not be afraid. — Isaiah 35:4

In that moment, Rebecca felt a huge relief on her heart. There is something special about a personal encounter with God where He becomes real to you. That was the moment for Rebecca, and from that point onward, life felt a lot brighter. School became a lot easier.

That moment marked her first personal encounter with God. It is one thing for your parents to introduce God to you—this is what parents ought to do—but it is another when you experience God for yourself. There, it becomes personal. It becomes real.

As she looked to God for guidance in her vacation, she was led to a training center where they were teaching craft shoemaking and African bag making. These skills would turn out to be a useful addition to her fashion creativity, but in that moment, it simply seemed like a good way to spend her vacation time.

Also during this time, she connected with a friend, Peter, and together they started a small shop where they sold craft shoes and bags. Peter as well had a love for fashion, and this common aspect saw them spend a lot of time on YouTube learning about all things fashion. It was a business bond that grew through the months of her vacation as they made some outfits from their creativity.

However, soon Rebecca went to Uganda Christian University, Kampala Campus, pursuing a Bachelor of Business Administration.

This was 2019.

By this point, it seemed like the light of her fashion dream had faded. She made peace with it—forcefully. She decided to let go of her fashion dream and focus on university. It was a painful decision.

She decided to dedicate her time at the university to ministry through the Campus Remnants Community of Zoe Ministries. She became a Campus Remnants Usher, and at that point, it seemed like the next three years were going to be nothing but studying.

But God had a different plan, as she was about to see.

End of Part 1

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A Note for the Reader: Rebecca’s story continues this Saturday. Subscribe to the blog with your email so you don’t miss the next part.