My friend Ludger and I were talking about we cannot fathom the evil in this world. Just the other day, he was up all night because he got a phone call from one of the house fathers of one of the boys’ boarding homes. One of the boys had been stabbed. Ludger drove to the scene and they called the police but the police didn’t come for a long time. The boy had been laying bleeding for nearly two hours before any help got there. Ludger thought for sure the boy was going to die on the way to the hospital. He said it was the most repulsive thing he had seen, to see this teenage boy stabbed and ripped apart as if he were meat. The boy is still alive and still recovering but it just makes us sick. I know things like this happen all over the world, but I have never been this close to it before.

I found out more information about Tenele. I ran into her old teacher, Auntie Gugu, on Sunday and I asked Gugu for advice on what else I can do to help Tenele. She told me more about her background and the “step-mother” that Tenele had been living with in Mangwaneni. Gugu said that she had to BEG the woman to even let Tenele go to her basic school because the woman treated Tenele like a slave. It was not Tenele’s real mother, but they kept that hidden from her until a few years ago. The “step-mother” treated Tenele like a slave and she was beaten often. But it gets worse…the mother made Tenele sleep with other men just so SHE could get money. CAN YOU IMAGINE?!! This isn’t a brothel…this is someone that Tenele thought was her OWN mother! She was reduced to a sex slave. Gugu asked me, “Now can you see why Tenele’s heart is so hard?” I cannot imagine a human being, let alone someone who is supposed to be a mother doing this to a young girl. This was going on two years ago when I met Tenele and she was 12 years old.

I don’t mean to dwell on the evil…because despite all this evil there is SO much good, too. We cannot ignore the goodness as well, but I just cannot wrap my mind around the evil. Though some tell me it’s impossible to help Tenele or that it’s TOO late…I know otherwise, because I know that goodness is far more powerful than evil. I know that love can cover over a multitude of wrongs. I know that all of your prayers and our prayers are battling off and claiming victory over evil. I know that LOVE and PRAYER change things. I know that the Lord is working unceasingly on Tenele’s heart. And I KNOW that NOTHING can separate us from the love of God… she will be rescued and brought back to her Father’s arms. I praise God that love is greater than pain.