Treeline

            The first week time that we went to the slums, I met a spunky girl named Daniella. She was always running around, jumping on you, and smiling. She is one of the most loving children that I have ever met and constantly wants to be loved on and held. After spending a couple of weeks with her, I was informed that she was one of the girls who went to the treeline. The treeline is about 50 feet long, in between 2 trees, where men will sit—drinking and playing cards—in wait of girls to come and sell themselves out of desperation. When I first found this out, I had so much anger at the situation. I wanted to be able to save her. But I had to remind myself that I was here to love these children. I wasn’t the one who could solve all of their problems, but I was the one who could radiate Jesus’ love out to them.

            Last week, while we were at the slums doing a VBS, God really placed it on my heart to speak to all of the girls about the treeline. I was very excited about talking to them because of my passion for them to break free of that lifestyle and pain. However, Satan kept placing a huge doubt in my head. Who was I to go in there and tell these girls to remain pure, even if it meant not eating dinner for a night? How could I tell them to choose to honor their bodies even when they may be beaten for it? How could I go in there and speak to them about this when I had never been in that desperate of a situation before? But God would not take it off of my heart. I knew that no matter the doubts I felt, God needed to speak to these girls and I needed to be a willing vessel in allowing him to do it through me.

We began to plan the VBS as a group and a few of us girls really felt passionate about it. As Tuesday, the day of the VBS, approached, I still wasn’t really sure what exactly to say to the girls. I knew that anything that was coming from my own self wasn’t of importance or true help to these girls, I wanted to be able to lay down all of my own words and just speak the Lord’s. It was extremely hard for me to be okay with not planning, and to trust that God would give me his words to speak. At the hospital, before the slums, I really began to feel discouraged. Satan was just really attacking me to the point where I didn’t even want to be serving in the hospital at all that day. I went and asked Allie to pray over me and immediately was released of the doubt and discouragement.

As we did the VBS on Tuesday, I could really feel God’s presence throughout our entire group. Tricia started out by sharing her testimony of sexual abuse so that the girls could see that we understood and could relate to their pain. Allie shared Psalm 23 with them and told the girls that whenever they were feeling threatened or helpless to cry out, “I will fear no evil, for you (God) are with me!” I spoke to the girls about God creating each and every girl beautifully and that he had a great purpose and plan for their life that didn’t involve them being harmed. We had the girls make bracelets out of three strands of yarn braided together: a pink strand representing their beauty in Christ, a white strand representing the purity that God desires for them, and a green strand representing the hope* that we have in Christ.

Although the girls didn’t share any details with us after the VBS, you could see a sense of freedom in some of their eyes. Many of the girls who are usually quiet or more reserved were running around with huge smiles on their faces. Continue to pray for each of these girls. Pray that God will protect them every single night. Pray that he will provide for them so that they will never reach the point of desperation that leads them to the treeline. Please pray that God will fill us with an overwhelming amount of emotional strength to say goodbye, knowing that we will never see most of the kids again. Please pray that as a group, we will fully trust God, knowing that he will take care of them.

*May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13