“Today they will be talking about teenage pregnancy with you”. My heart stopped. I could feel the heat moving towards my face and I began to pray that I would not blush in front of this class of Dominican students that looked at me with such questioning in their eyes. My mind began to race. I could feel my palms begin to sweat. All I could say was, “Lord give me the words”. With so many eyes looking up at me ranging in ages from 17-24, I knew that they had way more experience that I had accumulated in my 25 years. I had always lived a pretty sheltered life, which I’m so thankful for, but in this situation, it caused me to be at a loss for words. I searched the faces of my teammates and saw the same blank expression that I knew was plastered on my face. I opened my mouth and words began to flow out. I could hear myself talking, but knew that these weren’t my own words. Honestly I have no experience with teen pregnancy or anything that comes with it. I have an amazing Christian community back home, so I tend to have a naïve perspective on things. I was pouring out wisdom that I didn’t know existed within me and speaking truth that was directly from the Lord. One of my teammates, Tonya, looked at me and said, “Isn’t there a verse in 1 Corinthians we can use?” I quickly pulled my Bible out of my bag (always have your Bible ready!) and I turned right to 1 Corinthians 6:15-20 which says, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, ‘The two will become one flesh.’ But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
Whenever we first arrived in Comendador, one of the things we noticed was how friendly the people are. We also learned about how sensual the culture is. There aren’t family values here. They look to us for an example of what family is, what real love is in a community, in a friendship. As we continue to learn how to love one another as teammates, we are setting an example for these students, the family we share a home with, and the communities we visit. We had a woman look at us the other day and ask advice on how she should better care for her family. We looked around at each other because we don’t have families of our own; we only know the families we grew up in. We all come from different backgrounds and have so many different experiences with family, but the Lord has placed us together and created a new family that I feel so blessed to have. They have grace, consideration, encouragement, and the ability to speak truth. We experience love as brothers and sisters in Christ should.
I pray that a seed was planted today in the hearts of these students. It was such an awkward topic to talk about, but after a lot of thought, I came to understand that it was exactly what we needed to share with them because they have no one else to tell them. Marriage is not something that is important and relationships are not taken very seriously. They give everything away without knowing in advance how it will affect their hearts. They give their hearts away and it breaks mine. The heart is so precious, but no one has ever told them that you have to protect it, guard it from the dangers, the temptations of this world. These students want to know how to change their lives, to come out of sin. I pray they seek the Lord. I pray that the Lord restores them, that their innocence will not be lost. Christ gave his life for us. He freely gave love, the ultimate example. I pray that these beautiful people will accept the free love, the grace that is offered to them by our Father. He paid the price. Our lives, our bodies are not our own. We are each a temple for the Holy Spirit and I pray that we remember to glorify God with this precious gift that He has given to us, His children, His creation, the ones He loves.
