 …and stop crying your heart out by Carine Felgueiras |
I recently heard of a young girl, known in my circle of friends.
Not somewhere else
…exotic and distant,
But here, nearby…
a summer’s walk away,
in a house just like mine.
A girl, fiery and opinionated;
Insisted she knew better,
even at the pain of her family.
She left,
seeking freedom
and Liberation from the tyrannical rules of curfews and text checks.
Looking for love in all the wrong places.
And finding it,
just down the street from me.
Deceitful plagiarism called love.
The monsters deemed friends
had plans for her.
Plans to rape her and rip her heart out…
to strip her of human dignity.
She found herself chained to a bed.
Three. infinity. years.
A sex slave.
Imprisoned beyond imagination.
Treated like waste,
Less than human,
A sheet her only covering.
Passed off as a possession.
Sold for pennies.
Greed used her,
Like a disposable fast food cup,
Crushed, but not broken.
Until…
Grace found her,
Helped her escape.
Ironing out the wrinkles,
He tells her His plan:
A plan for good and not for evil.
His plan to make something beautiful
out of her nearly crushed life.
The greatest miracle of all?
That life can be beautiful again
for one such as this.
Is it more impossible
than the blind seeing,
the deaf hearing?
But butterflies break beyond their cocoon
and flit away to freedom.
Drinking nectar from a flower cup
dancing on the breath of God.
Oh dear one,
dare I hope…
dare I believe
the same for you?
Please consider purchasing this beautiful cookbook. The recipes are fantastic, (this writer might just have a few in there!) Just click on the picture and proceed to checkout. The proceeds from the profit go towards the Kwagala Project, which helps rescue young women in Africa from human trafficking. To find out more about the incredible story of this cookbook project visit my other blog, What In The World R U Doing 4 Christ’s Sake?
Please feel free to linkup one of your lovely pieces to our loving community. Make sure you encourage a few of the contributors as the Holy Spirit leads you…because He does, you know…
If this is your first time here, let me explain what we are all about. We are a community started by Emily Wierenga. It was called Imperfect Prose. She is on a bit of a vacation as she has some extra responsibilities at the moment.
If you are new, please check out Emily’s blog. It is one of the most beautiful places on earth, and you need to be acquainted with the woman who made all of this happen!
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beautiful, beautiful write about a tragic topic.
It crushed me to hear her story…
make my heart hurt…innocence stolen…thankful for God’s redeeming grace for all…
Thanks…
Blessings as you write with His heart….
My heart still hurts, and yet it soars, because He does the impossible, He makes a beautiful fragrance come from the crushed flower.
You took to vial and vulgar and made it visible, verifiable. You force us to see it – and to determine what we must do. And we must. do.
On Tuesday I will be sharing what we can do on my new blog What In The World R U Doing For Christ’s Sake? Thanks for your kind words….and use of alliteration…
oh this hurts the heart…ugh…we work witha group that goes into Thailand to free sex slaves…it breaks my heart to read…i have hope though…i do….
The thing that really sobered me is the proximity that this happened to my home, here in the US. It’s a worldwide problem. I’m going to be sharing about an opportunity to help on Tuesday over at my new blog What In the World R U Doing For Christ’s Sake? Thanks for stopping by, I love reading your blog.
it is a worldwide promlem and it does not surprise me it happens in the states…
Brian…I looked up the word promlem…(it’s actually a word in the urban dictionary…) I just figured that you’re way smarter than me and that I was going to learn a new word… aren’t I silly?
someday this will end
That is one of my greatest hopes.
so important. thank you for sharing.
Thanks for stopping by. Your words were beautiful today as well.
My heart aches as I read these beautifully/tragically strung words.
Thank you for sharing a story that so often stays hidden.
It was painful to hear about, and painful to write about as well. Thanks for your support.
Heart-rending, yet hopeful. Reminds me of an old saying, “Better to be like the willow, bending before the storm with quiet grace, than to be like an oak, meeting the wind with fierce strength and be broken.”
Well done. I look forward to finding out how I can help end this heartless cruelty.
I love the tree metaphor!! Thanks John.
yes, it is impossible. but with God… (which is exactly the point.)
The greatest miracle of all is a changed life inside.
I love to hear these impossible stories that have become possible because of Him. Thanks for sharing.
He specializes in the impossible…
“But butterflies break beyond their cocoon
and flit away to freedom.
Drinking nectar from a flower cup
Dancing on the breath of God.”
Just breathtaking.
Kind of like kites. Blazing. 😉
Thanks for leading me here.
Your words mean so much to me, Kiteblazer…
This cut me deep and makes me weep. I know it’s an actuality of the world today and it makes me sick. Thank you for the words and the shaking and awakening of a tragedy of humanity disrespecting humanity. And restoration can happen, but not often enough.
Together we can make restoration happen more often. I’ll be talking about some ways that we can help on my new blog What In The World R U Doing 4 Christ’s Sake. Let’s change our world!
Wow! This is so powerful. I can imagine it did crush you to hear her story. “Just down the street…” Lord, have mercy.
It makes me afraid to let me children out…even though they are college aged. But like the threats of the terrorists, we must be aware, but never back down. My neighborhood belongs to the Lord, I have claimed it as Kingdom territory!
The end just leaves me breathless. He can do anything. Praise God.
I love His business…
love, love, love that you wrote on such an important, crucial topic, friend. your writing is stunning and the way you give tribute to this girl, so Christ-like. bless you.
You’ve made my night. Thank-you.
This is definitely an issue near to my heart. Oh, if only they knew how cruel this world is, but we try to shelter our children from the horrific things in life. It’s a hard place to be. Thank God, He is able to bring beauty from ashes.
Yes, He does…and we must make our children aware enough to help them make right choices.
I just can’t imagine. But this takes me where I know I need to go. In places I don’t want to look.
Thanks.
I would love to cover my eyes to such pain, but know that I can not ignore the truth if I am to be of any help.
Nothing is beyond His redeeming love. This is so beautifully, poignantly, powerfully written. Thank you for sharing the things we find so difficult to bear. We need to care.
Sometimes it’s hard to see the truth. I’d rather hide in a perfect Christian world hole sometimes. But we must love.
Beautifully written. You gave me chills.
Thank you dear friend!
Thank you for sharing this. xx
You are welcome!
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Wow…gripping, tragic and beautiful
Thank you for being you…
This hurts and aches… you wrote so beautifully and tenderly though. Thankful that this young girl is free. There is hope.
Hope is the anchor of the soul…So glad to be anchored.
I have felt that tragic impotence of wanting desperately to help, to change things, to do something. I write of it, too, and talk about it even when people want to change the subject to something less writhing and painful, like movies or new recipes. I like movies and food, too, but do we need to ignore it? Thank you, friend for these amazing words AND the opportunity to do a little something to change the course of one person’s life. Bless you,
Alyssa
So..I combined deep subjects AND recipes… ;). Thank you for your encouraging words…I can only go places like this occasionally, an I so admire those who choose to stay there to help others.
Thank you for highlighting such an egregious and heartbreaking problem. It’s hard to believe this is happening all around us.
It is. Difficult. I would rather pretend that all is well…but I mustn’t.
dancing on the breath of God.–
Such a wonder when those most hurt by life find their way to freedom of the heart and soul—
Thank you for this enlightening and profound write–
I long to dance on His breath…
Such a tragic, but hope filled story. God can take the crushed and restore them to new life. Amazing.
God’s work is amazing and full of purpose.
I am so glad that Grace found her. I am glad that we can be put back together after almost being crushed to smithereens. How great is our God!
Greater than we can express, I dare say!
My heart leapt when I read these words:
“That life can be beautiful again
for one such as this.
Is it more impossible
than the blind seeing,
the deaf hearing?”
Yes, yes, all healing is possible!
Thank you for your hope, friend.
There is no greater miracle than a changed life.
Sex trafficking is such a problem here in our city, Portland, Oregon. Thank you for this post.
Isn’t it sad? We have no idea of the pain people endure, sometimes right next door….
You champion such a great cause with such beautiful words that create a picture for us all to understand the destruction and redemption. Thank you for hosting and posting!
Thank you for joining us!
heartbreaking, yet hopeful at the end…thank you so much for highlighting her story and for hosting 🙂
There a miracles in body and miracle in emotions…I think the latter is a greater miracle.
You’re welcome Dolly, thanks for being a faithful participant!
the beauty of redemption in the prose you painted here. Thank you for bringing it to light, offering a place for community to link up while Emily takes a break.
Thank you Shelly for being such a faithful friend to me…
God does indeed use all the broken pieces of our lives to make something beautiful.
Yes..He makes stained glass windows out of the pieces, and then shines through.
Yes, I remember this story. It’s heartbreaking and you write from such a tender place. But, yes–He does the impossible. Praise Him.
Thanks for remembering! We all read so much that it means a lot that something of mine would stay in your lovely mind.
Wow, thanks so much for highlighting a topic that has had an impact on me since watching the movie “Taken” many years ago. Really well done 🙂
Thank you for reading Bianca. (I love the name of your blog…)
OH. my. Just stilled by this. Thank you for sharing this story. Eye-opening.
Thank you for that vlog the other day! Wow! Just calming to my racing heart…
oops. I accidentally linked the post, so then went and put up the right one. So I have 2 links – sorry!
Stefanie
Oh, I can barely stand to imagine this, yet know it is true. My dear friends work tirelessly in India fighting to free sex slaves. And still we pretend like it’s all over there.. across the sea.. not in our fine country. Thank you for painting the ugly and honest truth and for weaving in that the beauty of hope.
There are so many problems we refuse to see right in front of our faces…sometimes I think that it’s a kindness, and that God waits to reveal until we can do something about it. Can you imagine bearing the pain of every hurt in our world? And yet He did that for us!