Yet another victim
This month we invited a few high school girls to spend time at The Well--most from other provinces including Uthaithani, which I wrote about here . One of the Uthai girls, "Pui", 16, had quit school a year and a half ago at age 14 to move in with a 29 year-old. She left him 3 months ago after he found a new mistress.
Baby-faced Pui barely dared to speak to me before I asked her to sit and talk today. The most I could get out of her was a shy smile and a "yes" or "no". But since Pui was out of school, we had talked about the possibility of accepting her full time at The Well, with this as a trial month. I was 95% sure we were going to accept her, but wanted to get more acquainted first.
I asked about her family. Pui's mother left when she was little and never returned. Pui has no memory of her. Her dad died when she was in sixth grade. Since her mom left Pui was raised by her aunt.
"Did your aunt try to stop you from moving in from quitting school and moving in with your boyfriend," I asked.
"No, she didn't really say anything."
You don't have to know much about counseling to understand that a child with this sort of background feels about as loved as a street dog.
We chatted a little more. Finally I asked a question that I hated to bring up but knew I must.
"I heard from a friend that you were raped a few months ago. Is that right?"
Pui nodded, holding back tears.
"How long ago did it happen?"
She misunderstood the question. "About 5 or 6 guys." The dam burst. I went to look for tissue.
That makes the fourth rape victim this year connected with The Well, the third teenager.
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I have some requests to help stop this:
Twenty mature couples to be foster parents, youth pastors etc. to kids like Pui.
Fifteen successful entrepreneurs to "sell everything, give it to the poor, and follow Jesus", using their business skills to start and develop small enterprises models that will employ single moms, support daycare and quality education, build families etc.
Ten passionate educators to help begin alternative educational programs for kids like Pui and many others that we know, who drop out of the system, receive no family support, and have no one to encourage them to seek something better than a life of abuse.
Five non-traditional pastors to leave their growing churches and come here to help start innovative churches that love the poor, lost and broken.
Four loving people with counseling training and experience to help begin recovery programs and create simple, reproducible materials that semi-literate people will enjoy reading or watching.
Finally, while it feels sort of mercenary or insincere to using a terrible incident like this as a platform to ask for money, I'm too sad right now and just don't care. I'd like to ask for five hundred people of all types to make at least one specific sacrifice in order to give more to this sort of need. Cut back on Starbucks, drop cable TV, trade down to an older car or a smaller house, eliminate soft drinks, reduce your retirement fund, wear last year's winter clothes, eliminate Christmas gifts, you get the idea. If we were to raise 10 million dollars over the next couple of years, it would be scary but it wouldn't be too little. But quite frankly it's the sacrifice and commitment that will encourage us, and ulimately do far more than a few million dollars.
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Pui will encounter God's love and be healed. Two years ago she came to a short camp we did for teens, similar to what we did this year. I remember asking everyone then what they wanted to be when they grew up, but apologized to Pui that I didn't remember. She reminded me that she had said she wanted to become a doctor. She still does. And by God's grace she will.
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