And my heart is breaking! Try to picture this and then I believe you will understand what I mean.
You are a little girl and your daddy is doing everything he can to make ends meet. Then one day something happens, and he dies. There is no life insurance, savings account or government assistance and you and your family are thrust into complete poverty. Your mom starts bringing in any man she can find so that the rent can be paid and a little food can be put on the table. You yearn and pray for another daddy but all that comes are “monsters”. You are forced to work like a slave instead of being able to go to school or play with your friends and are beaten if you don’t work hard enough or don’t collect enough money begging from the people on the street. You are abused by these “monsters” in your home every day, physically, mentally and sexually for years.
Then, when you are twelve years old, it is found out what is happening and some strange people come to your door and take you away from your home and family. You are taken to a strange place with a lot of other kids. Strangers there tell you that everything is going to be alright now and you don’t have to be afraid anymore. What is going on? Where is my momma? Can I believe these strangers? Can I trust them? What kind of monsters are they going to be?
You are very scared at first, but you begin to see that they aren’t lying to you, they aren’t monsters at all. They feed you and provide for you, give you new clothes and shoes to wear, they show you what true love is and really care about you. You finally get to start school, what you have always dreamed about. You start to experience what it’s like to be a kid, going to school, playing with your friends and having a safe and loving home. There is hope…
Several years go by and while you are so grateful for everything that has been done for you, you become accustomed to it. You have become accustomed to three meals a day, clean clothes and good shoes, a safe place to sleep at night, all your needs taken care of by loving people and being able to go to school. But then one day, you are told that you are going to have to leave, everything is going to stop, you are going to lose it all and your hope is shattered, all because you have turned a certain age. It doesn’t matter that you weren’t able to start school at the right age so that now you only have a 6 grade elementary education, it doesn’t matter that you have no one else you can turn to for help, none of that matters, because the rule is that once you turn 18 you have to leave and no more support will be given to you.
How terrified are you? How desperate do you feel? How will you finish your education? What are you going to do? How will you survive? Where will you live? How long before you are forced into the same situation as your mother or worse? How much hope for the future do you have now?
I can’t tell you how many girls in Guatemala have this exact story or something very similar to it right now. Way too many… I think of my own beautiful daughter, Nikki, and I can’t bear it. What if this would have happened to her? It breaks my heart to think of it, it brings tears to my eyes and actually makes me feel nauseous!
When Stan shared with me the vision the Lord had given him about starting Rocsana’s Hope this realization came to me and it is a driving force for me! Now that I have been over there and have met some of the girls and seen the situation first hand, it’s stronger now than ever! There are so many that are living this reality right now and it is killing me not being there to do whatever we can to help. Along with Stan and Denise, Esther and I are determined to get over there as fast as we can to start helping as many as we possibly can! I know God’s timing is perfect and I am BEGGING Him for that time to be now! Please pray for us…
