Teen angst. I see it swirling around me as I spend the afternoons at Center 1 of the Well. It almost makes me laugh. Seeing a beer can with cigarette butts being carted down the stairs from one of the girl’s rooms and Daddy Jim’s concerned face just floods the memories back for me. I was there. My parents found the cigarettes I hid in my dresser too. I had that conversation. I was in their shoes. I see it all unfold before my eyes and it brings a bit of a smirk to my face. I shake my head and say it… “teenagers…”
I go back to the project I’m currently working on for the Well interviewing all the girls to make little bios of their stories for their records. Nuch (noot), the student intern there who is translating for me, puts her hand on my leg like she always does, nods her head and says, “Okay. We are ready?” Gun is the next interviewee. She is only 16 years old and is one of the newer girls at the Well having only been living here for about a month. She met Jim when he went on a night outreach in Nana and ended up coming to the Well with her friend Na who is only 14. Both girls are little firecrackers and I knew instantly who those beer cans belonged to.
Lately I’ve noticed that tension has been pretty high at the house. So much drama! And of course, Thai culture dictates that you don’t directly talk to the person who you have issues with, you go through another person so that they will tell the other person about it. Sort of like little second grade crushes… “Oooo…will you tell Davey that I think he’s super cute?? I just can’t do it myself!” And yes, I have now inadvertently turned into that person…the asker of the cute boy, but instead there are no cute boys around. I’ve turned into the go between for the girls to the staff at the Well. Lucky me!
I think the girls just need a place to vent and get their feelings out a bit too, so I’m glad that I can help them do that. The translation sometimes is hard and I get exhausted trying to figure out all the little intricacies of who’s with who and what’s going on and who’s feelings are hurt. But even as I shake my head and almost write them off as whiny little teenagers who just need to grow up a little more, there is a check in my spirit that brings me back to the seriousness of their situation.
These girls need love. They are steps away from making a decision to walk away from the Well and back once again to the bar scene they left to work here. They have the free will to do so because Jim and Judy don’t want anyone to feel pressured into anything…they have enough of that in their lives already. The Well runs much like a family in that Jim and Judy have such deep heartfelt love for the girls they bring in and treat them all as children. They are amazing to watch with the girls—their love is so free-flowing and natural. I wonder why any of them would want to run away from it.
But then again, this isn’t quite run as family was run in my house. Mom found those cigarettes and my booty was grounded! I remember having only 15 minutes a night as my telephone allowance which was severely limited for the talkative social butterfly I was at 14. I could only see certain friends and sleepovers were out of the picture for a while. I hated them for doing this to me and I ran away too. Granted, I only made it halfway down the driveway before my mom saw me with my bags packed and said, “You better get back inside before your dad sees you!” She didn’t really have to say anything more to convince me. I went back home, but it didn’t change the fact that I wanted out.
Obviously things have drastically changed in my own story and I love my parents very much, but I can’t help relating to what these girls are feeling now. I can’t help but think of the things they’re running to at the bars though and how much I don’t want them to be a part of any of it. I’m sure it’s the way my parents felt those many years ago for me too. They wanted more for me and I can see now that it was their love for me that kept me out of real trouble.
I pray that the girls here at the Well will see Jim and Judy’s love for them and that they will stay. There are just so many more opportunities for them at the Well then at the bar, but oh, we are often so easily deceived! To these young ones who haven’t even been working at the bar very long the job seems glamorous. They haven’t had a “customer” yet. They’ve left the bars mostly unscathed but with a taste in their mouths for the glitz and glamour that the bar lifestyle fronts. If only they knew that it’s not all glamour and gold and good looking guys. I pray they won’t have to find out the hard way.
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Please pray with me
for these young ones; for their hearts to be receptive to the love being offered by Jim and Judy and also from our Savior Jesus Christ. They really need that love to hit home in their hearts. Pray also as the whole crew at Center 1 takes a retreat to the beach this weekend. Jim hopes that it will be just the thing to jump start some of the girls into the radical life of following Jesus and bring some unity to the group living at the center.
Personally I think this retreat comes at a perfect time, because I’ve been able to talk one-on-one (plus one with the translator) to each of the girls about their stories and some have really opened up and shared even more than I thought they would. I think their hearts are ripe and are obviously in so much need of true love. Some of the sessions I’ve done with the girls have turned into full blown counseling sessions digging into past issues with tears flowing freely. At the end of the questionnaire I always speak some life over the girl by telling her what I see in her and how I think God can use her giftings. They’re always so smiley and thankful after. I wonder how much life has been breathed into them in the past…can so much death and deception be broken even by simple words of love and encouragement in the name of Jesus?
I think so.
