SANDINA

August 24
Bus bound for Kansas City

I had struck conversation with a man in line while we waited to board our bus [which I never got a name] and we talked bible and God for a good hour. He was referring to Titus 2 as he gestured towards a young girl that had been standing behind us and leaned in close and whispered, "I think you need to talk to her."
We kept talking as this girl listened to me get passionate about the father heart of God and how this generation is hurting because there are not any men walking in their roles as fathers or leading in example. I mentioned how it causes young woman to find love in other men and leads to a life of self destruction and she piped in saying, "thats what happened to my sister..."

I knew a seed was being sown and I wanted to water it...

When we boarded the bus I offered her to sit next to be and within minutes of asking her, "Her story" she had completely opened up about everything as if she was just waiting for someone to ask.

Her name was Sandina and she began to tell me how when she was a as young as 10 years old her mom  would leave her home alone with nothing to eat and how one day 3 grown men broke into their apartment she told how they were drinking, smoking and they all had weapons. She ran to lock herself in her room but they kicked in the door, one of them kicked her and yelled nasty things to her, threatening her.  Just minutes later her older sister and her sister's boyfriend came in and drove them off and her sister took her with them to take care of her. In effort to calm her down [in the only way she knew how] her older sister gave her weed and she told me she had been smoking ever since that day.

At age 13 her Dad finally came into the picture and decided to be a part of her life and after never knowing him she went to move in with him. She told me how her dad was sexual with her and would always make her lift up her shirt so he could touch her stomach, but only when no one else was around.

She got sick of her dad and at the age of 14 moved in with her boyfriend who was a drug dealer and began hustling drugs. By then she was hooked on Meth and told me how it completely controlled her, selling drugs to get drugs, doing anything to get her next fix being in and out of pysch wards all the time because she would hallucinate on these heavy drugs.

At age 16 she had gotten pregnant and had enough sanity to know she had to get sober for this baby, she and her boyfriend both got clean [even though they were still selling drugs] the whole time she was pregnant and she had a beautiful baby boy, Josiah.

Two months after the baby was born she left the baby home alone, got drunk and arrested and had Josiah taken by CPS.

Now Sandina was headed for Kentucky to stay with a friend to get sobered up so that she could get custody of her son back. She didn't tell anyone where she was going, not even her boyfriend[/baby daddy.] "I know this is what I have to do to live right, I have a baby and he needs his mom, I can't live that life anymore." Sandina is 18 years old.

I felt the Lord tell me, "She's running," so I asked her, when are you going to stop running? She looked at me with eyes full of pain and fear and didn't say anything.

We talked more about God and what she believed about Jesus, she said she had accepted him into her heart and I explained the power that raised Christ from the dead that live inside her, that she could use that power to stop the addictions and terrible things that the devil puts in our way. We talked about getting sober and she said  "Once I've been free from drugs awhile I want to help other people get clean." That's when I explained that God would be her hope because when we're weak he is strong and He can sustain us.

When I asked about a church she said she used to go, and these older leaders would pray for her every week and she would feel so happy but none of the kids her age would talk to her so because she didn't feel accepted she just stopped going [Wake up church!] I apologized on their behalf and explained that God hasn't rejected her and even though she's running he hasn't lost sight of her and how His hearts aching for her to come to Him because He loves her SO much, that even through all these terrible things the devil has thrown at her. God has protected Sandina and even now He is pulling her out of her old lifestyle that she might be able to stand on her feet.

PRAY this young girl has been through SO much suffering and seen things a girl her age should have never seen. Pray purity and a clean mind, a new hope in Christ alone, for a church that will embrace her and build her up to be the woman of God she is called to be. Pray that she would be able to gain back custody of baby Josiah and be his mommy again.