The road to innocence
Pear said today she thought she might be pregnant since she has been feeling dizzy and achy for a couple of weeks. That is a pretty heavy thought for a 13 year-old. Even if she is pregnant, it's too early for those symptoms. I asked her how she would feel if it were true. “I don't know,” was all she could come up with.
This weekend we visited the homes of 3 of our teen girls in the Buriram and Surin provinces, as well as Prang's home, or our “Buriram outpost”. Saturday night we stayed at 16 year-old Noon's house, met her mom, a number of aunts and one uncle. Men are often scarce in these rural villages, often working out of town, or sometimes dead or in jail. One aunt began telling us about her daughter who is working bars in Bangkok. Noon had mentioned her to us as the cousin who invited her to come work bars with her, but we haven't had a chance to meet her. The cousin's mom reported, in tears, that her daughter is with a guy who beats her regularly. We promised to try to meet her as soon as possible.
Of course no girl grows up dreaming to lose her virginity the way Pear just did, or to marry a man who will beat her up. On the other hand, no little boy starts out thinking he's going to do that sort of thing to a woman. It happens over time as an evil world opens a wound and injects its venom. And the story of Eden is repeated again and again. The sin that seems like such a good idea at first turns it's ugly face and haunts with shame. Another one experiences what it's like to be cast out of the garden.
Pear's dad went to prison 4 years ago--she hasn't said why and we're not sure she knows. Her mom found a new guy, who Pear says touched her inappropriately and made her feel unsafe at home. She says that's when she quit school and started staying away as much as possible. It was only a matter of time before the unthinkable happened. Pear's mother told Judy she was tired of her and had lost hope for her. The family of the seventeen year-old who violated Pear agreed to pay her family about $47 to settle the case.
We left Noon's house late morning and went to a reservoir that offered a place to swim. With a steep bank paved with rocks it was hardly swimmer friendly. The girls, including Pear, rented some inner tubes and splashed around just a few feet from the bank, laughing and shrieking. Seeing Pear playing like that I saw a child again, one who wanted her innocence back. By God's grace, Pear will find innocence again through the power of the cross, and who knows, maybe her dad, who has another year left on his sentence, will come to Jesus and one day give his virgin daughter away to a loving man who will treat her the way a child of God deserves.
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