Last night I was going to go to bed early, so I started reading this book I checked out from the library, Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. It's basically the story of Hosea, only from the prostitute's perspective and it takes place in the 1830's in the U.S. Well, I thought I'd read maybe 5 pages and be out, but instead I read the whole prologue. As soon as I finished it, I started crying, sobbing. The whole prologue is about this little girl and how, due to a lack of love and people who cared about her in her life, she was forced into prostitution...at the age of eight!!! It made me think about the kids I see every Tuesday when I go to do the children's ministry at TEC. It totally broke my heart on a new level for, not just these kids, but all kids who don't have someone to show them what real love is, and that they are worth being loved. Sometimes I feel like I have so much love in my heart that I have to give away in order to be happy, I have to have someone to serve or to give to. This book helped me realize what a lack of love there is in the world. I should never feel like there is no one for me to love, because the world is full of people who are literally dying (physically and spiritually) to be loved. I feel like I've been kind of naive to that. Even though I've gone a lot of places and seen a lot of things, I feel like it's never really sunk in how much of a REAL need there is in the world, not for food, not for shelter, but for love.
There's a 17 year-old girl here who is a friend of Patricia (the German girl I work with) and comes over sometimes for dinner or to hang out with us. She has this "god-father" who is with her ALL the time. It's really weird how he unceasingly hovers over her...long story short, we think she is being sexually abused by him. Patricia talked with one of the experienced missionaries here about it and she said, unfortunately, it's very likely that that's what's happening. She said it's pretty normal here. NORMAL?!?!?! That's just not right! Also, I've been told that the majority of the kids who come through the kids' ministry I'm involved in on Tuesday afternoons are being sexually abused at home by their fathers and brothers as well. I can't stand it but I don't know what I can do about it.
Please pray for me, that God would open up my eyes more and more to the need for love and give me wisdom in how to show that love. Continue to pray for safety, as I am living in a very different world here. And most of all, please pray for the kids of Pucallpa and all the kids all over the world who feel worthless and unloved, that God would bring someone into their lives to share Christ and His love with them, the only love that truly satisfies. We can't go into their pasts and erase the terrible things they've had to experience and endure, but we can at least show them God's love...a Redeeming Love. I John 4:10-12
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