If any of you have seen our Ratanak presentations you would have watched a video that featured Mien who at the age of 14 chose to sell herself as a sex slave in order to pay off the debts her family had incurred. For 6 months she was raped and sexually tortured from 5pm to 5am. After that horrendous ordeal, she continued to move from brothel to brothel over the next 6 years in order to support her family. One day she was rescued and brought to the Newsong centre. While Mein stayed at Newsong, the former brothel where she was held captive was converted into what is now Rahab's House and Mein returned to volunteer during those early days when a kids club was established. Mein was then reintegrated back to Svay Pak to her family and she has set up a tailoring shop here.
Today she came by to visit Bridget Brewster at The Sanctuary as Mein is helping to make the curtains for the Brewster's apartment which is on the 5th floor of the Sanctuary. She will also be making all the school uniforms for the kids when The Sanctuary school opens in October. Mein has been attending the Sunday services at the Sanctuary and got married last year. It was so great to meet her as she is really one of my heroes. She has survived such a traumatic past and yet today she is a beautiful young woman with a beautiful smile. God indeed has not only restored her hope, He has restored her dignity, He has restored her joy and He has given her a new life, a new future as she lives out her dream of having a tailoring shop right in this community, a place she calls home. She is a reminder that there is no life so destroyed, so devalued and so degraded by Satan, that God cannot heal and redeem. She is a living testimony of the power of God to do the impossible because He really is the God of the impossible!
After lunch as I was sitting talking to one of the team members from Bayside, my 'special daughter' 'SN' who many of you have prayed for over this past year came by to visit. I don't get to see her too often as she goes to a private school near Svay Pak and so does not have the opportunity to come to the daily kids club at The Sanctuary. Nonetheless, she comes faithfully every Sunday to Sunday school and some times during the week she will pop in on her way to school during the lunch hour to say hi. Today when I saw her, she surprised me by giving me earrings that she had made. I'm so touched with her thoughtfulness and her generosity. Here
The earrings from 'SN'
is a little girl who is only 11 years old and has so little. Her mother and father own a brothel in Siem Reap and her little sister unfortunately is caught in that web of oppression. SN lives with her grandmother who attends church at the Sanctuary and while she is always at risk of being sold, she too is a living testimony of the power of prayer as many people have stood in the gap on her behalf asking the Lord to protect her from further abuse. I am grateful to God for the special friendship He has given me with SN. While she can speak some English, it is limited, yet God has shown me through SN that language barriers cannot limit His love. He is the One who can knit hearts together between two people from two vastly different cultures and life experiences to demonstrate that His love knows no bounds. This is the power of Christ's love. This is the mystery of His love. This is the blessing of His love!
Your story shows how strong the human spirit is. For these young women to have been through what they have and come out of it so strong is amazing. We sometimes feel sorry for ourselves when we haven't seen any of the horrors they have, and then you read something like this and realize...compared to them my life is a cake walk.
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