The Mags are in Indonesia for another three weeks of “Ask the Lord” ministry. After spending a few days in Jakarta, we made our way by train to the city of Banyuwangi. Our first day here we decided to walk around the town and get a feel for where places are- mainly to find out where good restaurants are, where we could buy snacks, and where we could get coffee (because food is definitely a priority on this team. We love to eat).
We made our way back to the train station and we were met by a woman on a pathway surrounded by trees. She was asking us for help, for money or for medicine because she was sick. We told her we didn’t have any money to give her, but told her we would pay for a meal for her. She agreed, and took us down the pathway to an outdoor coffee shop/restaurant, which was beautiful.
We sat down and ordered coffee, and told the woman to order whatever she wanted. She told us that the restaurant was owned by her uncle and run by her family. She looked uncomfortable, and a few teammates and myself felt uneasy while we were sitting there. We each started praying for her and for whatever situation we were about to face. The woman’s food came out quickly, but she didn’t eat it. Different members of her family kept coming up to her and speaking to her, trying to prevent her from eating the food that we were trying to bless her with. Kayce kept pushing the plate of food towards the woman until she finally conceded and ate.
She didn’t talk much to us at all. Ariane told her that she was beautiful, and repeated this multiple times because the woman didn’t believe it was true. We sat together as a team, drank our coffee, and had some lighthearted as well as deep meaningful conversation, all while the woman was sitting at our table with us. The woman eventually spoke, very timidly, and said to us, “These men have sex with me. They beat me. My family knows I’m strong so they beat me.”
We immediately stopped our conversation to listen and focus our attention on her. The girls sitting closest to her started calmly reassuring her, telling her that we started praying for her as soon as we met her, and that we had been praying for her the whole time we were sitting there. We let her know that it was no coincidence that our paths crossed, and whatever lightness or courage she was feeling was the result of being surrounded by the Holy Spirit that was living in each one of us.
The woman started sobbing. She got to the point where she could no longer speak; all she could do was cry. She told us that she didn’t want to be strong anymore, because she had been consistently beaten down and used by her family. The last thing she said to us was, “I’m sorry,” before she got up and walked away. Immediately afterwards, one of the men who worked at the restaurant came over to us and apologized on her behalf, trying to tell us that she was crazy- apparently they tell people this so that they won’t take her seriously. We paid for our drinks quickly after this and left.
I can honestly say I have never felt more disgusted by a human being than I did towards those men. I hate what they are doing to that woman, to a member of their family. How they are abusing her physically, sexually, mentally, and emotionally. I hate that there’s nothing I can do to stop them, and I hate how they will hurt her for having a conversation with us.
Later that night, my team and I spent some time in worship. I talked to God and wanted to intercede on behalf of this woman and all of the women that those men may be using. After I did this, he told me to pray for those men too, to intercede on their behalf as well because they don’t truly understand the weight of what they’re doing. I begrudgingly did this, but honestly, in that moment no part of me wanted them to experience God’s mercy.
But God has been teaching me about the meaning free will these past couple of weeks. He took this as an opportunity to show me not only how much he loves the woman we met, but also how much he loves those men too. He loves each of us enough to give us complete free will in our lives. He could have easily stopped those men from hurting that woman. He still can. But the reason he chooses not to is because by stopping them, he would be taking away their free will. He would be taking away their ability to decide their own actions and the course of their lives. And as much as it pains me to say this, God loves those men too much to take away the gift that he has chosen to entrust all of his people with.
He lovingly created each of us, not just the people who choose to follow him, but also the people who reject him. He never stops pursuing us, no matter what sin that we choose to live in. What those men are doing is horrendous. It makes me feel sick to my stomach and it drives me to a kind of righteous anger that I haven’t figured out what to do with yet. I know my job is to keep fighting for that woman, and all of the women who are abused, through prayer. I also know that it is my duty to fight for the abusers.
As difficult as this task will be, God calls us to show nothing but love for the people we meet, because we may be the only example of God that they see. My team and I have been told many times by the “strangers” we meet that there’s something different about us, and that difference is the spirit of Jesus Christ living within us. God will have to give me the supernatural strength to pray for the people who are causing pain and hurting others, but my God is big enough to move the mountains within me.
