After sitting in traffic for 4 hours on the way back to Pastor Umali’s house, I was exhausted from my busy travel day. The next day we woke up early and drove almost 3 hours to the Transformation center. This is a program that helps rescue children and their mothers from the redlight district prostitution ring. I walked into one of the buildings and saw the wall plastered with photos of my dad and machelle. Even when I am traveling alone, their presence is always there. My dad told a story about the word Shalom, so I built off of it and told them about Shalom Chaverim. They started saying it to each other, which was so cool to see. Priya then took me around to all of the different living quarters and told me stories about some of the women and children. As she told me each story, the next one was harder to hear. There was a baby who was saved because they were able to take the mother in and convince her not to sell her child. Women become so desperate for money to feed themselves that sometimes, it comes down to selling their own children. I walked around and played with the kids and sat with the mothers while Priya translated for me. So, after one of the most emotionally exhausting days of my life, I get a much needed phone call from Machelle in Papau New Guinea. She asks how the day was. I simply reply, “overwhelming.”
“Overwhelming? That’s all you have to say about the day? That it was overwhelming?”
Then, the fortress of emotions I had held up all day in front of the children came down, and I began to sob to Machelle on the phone about one of the hardest days of my life. I had no idea that the next day would hold a bigger challenge.
No comments:
Post a Comment