So, I was going to do a boring blog post with some random bits of information about my daily happenings, but then I had a more eventful day than usual, so I’ll share with you! (Sorry I’ve been so lousy at keeping you all updated!)
So. We have a particular girl in the program who we’ve had trouble getting all the correct info about her story about how she was trafficked and her family situation and such. She has been attempting to contact her father for a few weeks, but wasn’t able to for whatever reason, but it wasn’t until a few days ago that some information about his email and phone number came to her mind. She seems to have a lot of trouble remembering things, which is most likely a result of her trauma. In the office they had a day of prayer on Thursday, and this girl was asking for prayer about seeing her family. We all seemed pretty skeptical that anything was going to come of it, given her inability to tell a consistent version of her story. But, as I walked into the office today, she seemed extremely happy, she told me with a huge grin on her face that her parents were coming today! I couldn’t believe that just two days ago we were thinking how unlikely it was that we’d be in contact with her father, and now it was just a few hours till he arrived. It was really precious to see how excited she was, but I was still a bit nervous about how things were going to go.
But, I arrived back to the office after a trip to the market to find her parents both there! Her father was really sweet and they both seemed to be so relieved to see their daughter again. We found out it had been two and a half years since she’d been missing, and they’d been trying to find her, but the police system in India didn’t make the task easy.. or possible. It was a pretty emotional time, for everyone – her parents, herself, and for us to watch. She was able to go home with her parents today! There are still definitely concerns over her mental state, as we see some pretty heavy effects of the trauma she’s experienced, but it’s beautiful to know she is back in the company of her family and loved ones, and that she’s safe. Usually we think about the girls and what they go through, but this experience made me stop and think about what her parents must have gone through, their child missing for over two years with no idea whatsoever where she could be. It was sad to see her go, even though I am excited for her, because I was really enjoying having her around - she had the strongest English of all the girls so it was much easier to form a connection, and she's very sweet natured. But, I feel really blessed to be able to witness something like this, and it makes me even more excited about the work that Freedom Firm and IJM do.
After work, I visited a church with a friend of mine and Sheena, my housemate. Sheena has been doing some speaking here in India to try to let people see that women are valuable! We parked and walked up through a lot of houses that were not as nice as others in Ooty.. these were more like shanty houses, instead of holiday homes. We arrived at the church to very lively music (sung in Tamil). We sat on the women’s side.. the men were on the other side of the room.. very culturally different to churches I’ve usually been to. Sheena began to give her talk, but half way through was interrupted by a cow outside mooing loudly. Only in India!
It was great to see how excited the pastor was to share with his congregation, who are mostly new Christians. It’s always refreshing and exciting to interact with Indian Christians, since Hinduism is so prevalent here.
So, yes, an eventful day indeed! But a good day!
Thanks for reading.
(Feel free to ask questions – I feel like I haven’t done a very good job of explaining much!)
- Bronte.
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