My sister was abducted.
She was studying or doing a test in Physics class.
It could have been me.
My sister was abducted.
She dreamed of becoming a pediatrician or owning her own business one day.
It could have been me.
My sister was abducted.
She is a Christian and loves God with all her heart.
It could have been me.
My sister was abducted.
She is spunky and sassy and loves to dance.
It could have been me.
When I heard the news my heart dropped.
It continued falling into the pit of my stomach.
I cried uncontrollably.
My heart was broken.
I knew her story.
I had held her babies.
If I were a few years younger and was born in Nigeria, it could have been me. On April 14th, 2014 almost 300 girls from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok in northern Nigeria were abducted by the Islamist group, Boko Haram. Boko Haram is opposed to any form of western education and has promised to sell the girls into sexual slavery or forced marriages. This month in Thailand, I have been living at and working with an organization called Samaritan’s creation, which rescues, employs and counsels women involved in the sex trade in Bangkok’s red-light district. I live with these girls, eat with them, cry with them, get manicures with them, hold their babies, laugh with them and do life with them. They are my friends. They are my sisters. When I heard the news of the Nigerian girls, my heart broke on a level it never had before. I fasted the next day and prayed for each of the girls by name. Sexual slavery and prostitution are no longer just sad events that take place in the world to me. They are real and poignant. They are close to home. The women and girls involved are no longer statistics. They are my housemates, they are my roommates, they are my friends, they are my sisters.
May we realize the gravity of this situation. May we pray for the girls’ safe return. May we pray for all women and girls caught in this atrocious industry. #BringBackOurGirls.
John 8:36
New Living Translation (NLT)
So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.
