When Life is Hard… There is Hope (Part 2)

     I promised in Part 1 of this blog that I would be sharing a couple of stories of the amazingly strong women in Candelaria.

     I would like for you to meet Rosa. Rosa lives in the neighboring village of La Isla and I met her in April when she began working in the kitchen at our church. Rosa exudes the joy and life of Christ. She rides her bike an hour to work each morning (even when it's POURING the rain) and enters the kitchen hugging everyone in sight and singing worship songs as she goes about her work. If you see the joy that she radiates, you would never guess that she had endured such a horrific past.
     One day I sat at the kitchen table as Rosa began to share her testimony. She recounted her childhood and the fact that she grew up in a home where rape was a constant threat. She lived in fear of being raped by her grandfather, uncles, or cousins. In fact the only way that Rosa kept from being raped was to tie a potato sack around her waist and sleep underneath her mother's bed. She did this every night for seventeen years and actually managed to escape being sexual assaulted in her home.
     At 17 years old, there was a man in her village who wanted to marry her. Rosa didn't love the man, but was desperate to leave the danger and violence of her home so she agreed to marry him. She married at 17 and immediately began having children even though she told me at that point in her life having sex with her husband was something that terrified her (due to the fact that sexual advances had been something she had worked so hard to fight off her entire childhood).
     To me, the most amazing part of Rosa's story is the way in which she talks about her life. She doesn't share her story with even a trace of self-pity. In fact, as she told me her story, she talked about how fortunate she was. She talked about the Lord's protection and salvation; how He had saved her from enduring childhood rape. She talks about His mercy and goodness; how He provided her with a husband who had been good to her and how she is so thankful to now really be in love with him. She is thankful that she is able to provide a better life for her four children.
    Rosa's story is unusual only in that she survived her childhood with her virginity intact. The horrors of her home life are all too common here. Studies have shown that 52% of Nicaraguan women have been abused physically or sexually in their homes (and those of course are only the women brave enough to admit their abuse).
     You would NEVER guess talking to Rosa that her life has been so hard. She is filled with the joy of the Lord and has truly learned to put all of her hope in Christ. She can confidently proclaim these words: