Today I had the privilege of listening to an incredible story.
Dev (pronounced Dave) got to the YWAM base a few days after we arrived. She had finished her DTS and then gone for a month of outreach in Sri Lanka (for those of you unfamiliar with YWAM, they have several weeks of Discipleship Training School and then they pray and go off to do ministry). We hit it off immediately. Paul, our contact, told me that she danced and had visited DC, so I was psyched to get to know her. She was funny, lively and engaging.
She’s also passionate about seeing God transform lives.
Tomorrow morning she leaves the YWAM base to go off and do her ministry. Since today was her last day, she came into our room one last time and shared her story with us.
Dev’s mother was sold into the red light district as a prostitute at age 16. She had one baby die, and when Dev contracted tuberculosis as an infant, her mother was determined to see her live, even if it cost everything (including her husband). Over the next few years, Dev was emotionally and physically abused by her new
stepfather.
Eventually, she ended up in Teen Challenge, and after a few years had come to know the love of Christ, and stood up to her mother, saying “either you’re my mom and you come live with me and leave your husband forever, or you stay with that man and I don’t want to have anything else to do with him ever again.” Her mom came, is now working with Teen Challenge, and has even been back to Nepal to work with girls in the red light district.
Dev is one of those people that I hope never to forget. When she was finished with her story, she said, “I’m telling you my story to challenge and inspire you,” it wasn’t to gain pity or attention. In a world full of people who blow up their problems, looking for someone to blame and others to carry their loads, Dev has accepted the hard times in her life graciously, but she looks for the good, and is using her life to save others.
This girl is a mighty warrior in the kingdom of God, and I hope you join me in praying for her and her team as they go out to bring light into the darkness.
[Again, there will be pictures when the internet decides to be my friend… Haha apparently that day isn't today!]
