Yusolin

I was tired, hot, sticky, cramped, and overjoyed as the small van pulled up in front of Edwin’s house in the small cross roads community known as Elpalme de Bonca in the country of Nicaragua. It was late, yet some of the children had stayed up to greet us and were peering into the van to see who had returned. As we got out I heard different names being mumbled and the kids that we so excitingly waiting all of a sudden were shy and hanging back. The youth that were just kids were now young teens and were not sure how to show their excitement and affection in person.

After carrying in all the meds that we had brought (1,500 lbs worth) a few of us ventured back out doors to greet the youth and bid them good night. After speaking to many of the youth I began looking around for a young girl (Yusolin) that was always there with her brothers and sister to greet us. Turning to her younger brother (Amberto) and her sister (Kenya) I asked them where she was. I wasn’t prepared for the answer. “She is married” they answered. “She is married?” I asked half in jest thinking they were pulling my leg. “Yes” they answered seriously. “10 days ago”. Now I don’t speak hardly any Spanish so thinking that I heard wrong I went in and got a team member to interpret… Yet, I had heard right. Though young Yusolin was not “married” she had indeed left with an older man 10 days earlier and no one had heard from her. Staring off in the night I could hear the buses on the main road; the buses that lure so many young girls trying to sell something/anything to those passing through. The busses that can bring business to this small town but also be a deadly trap as an older man entices a young girl that he can give her a better life. I knew this to be true, I knew that this happened. Yet now here was one of our own that was gone. It was no longer a warning or story from someplace far away it was here and it was her.

That night was a heavy one. I awoke in the morning and began giving my all the 100+ children that would pass though each day. We sang, read Bible stories, played water games, played baseball, laughed, and sang some more. Yet in the midst of it all I knew there was one missing. One that had given her life to Christ 6 months earlier. One that was an outcast in this would but the most beloved of our most high God.

The next day I was told by one of the Drs. that she was coming home b/c she had word her mother was ill. I was sent to the bus stop to greet her and walk her to the clinic. I walked/ran to the bus stop many times over the next two days. (Each time the bus came pass the play ground b/c no one had any way of knowing which one she was on.) Each time walking back empty handed with bus fare in my pocket and her picture in my hand. Stopping by her small shack on my way back to clinic her brother came out and said she had called. The man she is with cut himself with the machete and he would not allow her to leave b/c he needed someone to care for him. It was then I knew she was not coming back. I still walked to the bus stop the next day and still prayed that she would be there, but came back alone.

It is wrong and injustice. I have not given up hope and remember Yusolin. Please join me in praying for our dear young sister safe return.