But I couldn’t find her.
As I was getting frustrated with not finding her, I felt God asking me if I trusted Him, even if I didn’t see her after church. Did I trust that He would put her back in my path?
So I prayed about it and was confident I would see her again before we left. Sure enough, that afternoon as we were going to shower in the river, she was walking towards us into town. Now, she lives up in the mountain, thirty minutes from the pastor’s house, so her house is not close, but God brought her down so I could invite her to visit me on Tuesday.
She was very excited and promised she would be there.
I waited for her all day on Tuesday and she finally came down around 2:00 that afternoon. I gave her a hug and walked with her and her daughter down to the pastor’s house so we could have a place to talk. She said she had walked all the way down to the pastor’s house on Monday because wanted to make me a bookmark that had my name on it, but she couldn’t remember my name. Since we weren’t there, she made the bookmark, but it was the wrong name.
However, this actually became a blessing in disguise.
She was quick to say ‘I’ll make another one tonight and bring it back in the morning.’ I told her that was very sweet, but we were leaving very early, and with the walk down, she didn’t need to do that. She said, ‘Marina said you are leaving at six, I will be here at 5:30.” So, we sat down and talked for about an hour, and I learned a lot about her life.
She told she makes bracelets for Threads of Hope, but she might be leaving in February to go to Malaysia to be a domestic helper. She would have a contract for two years and would have to leave her daughter and husband. She wants to go so that she can make more money for her daughter to go to school. I asked a few questions about it, but moved on to other conversation. We talked for a while longer, and then she left with promises to be back early the next morning.
I went inside to talk to Julie and Jessica about my conversation, and Jessica raised the concern that she would be skeptical of a two year contract like that because that is how girls get into forced prostitution or become sex slaves.
My stomach dropped. WHAT?
