Joy's story is beautiful and uniquely hers, but in some ways, it is the story of a thousand other young women like her. Here it is, in her own words...
To understand my situation today, I think it is important to understand where I’ve come from. I have a younger brother and a younger sister. Because of the One Child Policy, my parents were fined for both my brother and my sister. Because we couldn’t pay the fine, the government took almost all of the furniture from our home and some food when we were young. Even before they did this, our family already had very little… we were often short of food and lived in a house that leaked when I was young. My mom has a very bad temper. Due to the difficulties our family faced and the loss of our possessions, she lost hope and got angry frequently, sometimes even passing out.
Despite our family’s situation, I did very well in school. I was one of the top students in my class, always in first or second place. But after middle school, the pressure of having all three of us attending school was more than my family could bear, and I wasn’t able to continue my education. Instead of going to high school, I went to a Secondary Vocational Health School after middle school, hoping to be able to support my family earlier. I dreamed of being a doctor, and didn’t understand until later that I wouldn’t be able to achieve this dream with just a 3-year basic educational program completed. But, I wasn’t able to continue pursuing an education after the Health School, so I started to work to support my family. While working, I tried so hard to further my education and learned English during these years. Since finishing the health education program, I have been supporting my family with my meager income, and I’ve been under a lot of stress and pressure for most of the time. I have always wanted to do something to impact people’s lives in a meaningful way. I have been praying for God’s leading for a couple of years, and He revealed his answer to me last year. I went to a women’s retreat (Beauty for Ashes) in the fall of 2008. I had always felt like I have so many problems that need God’s help, but at the retreat I discovered I am really the lucky one. There are women who have been hurt so much, either from their marriages or their parents, and they have been carrying the bitterness all their lives. Seeing so many broken hearts and emotions, I was shocked. Is.61:1 says – He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives. God is the one they really need and so many of these women were healed at that retreat.
1 comment:
Amazing story of beauty from ashes. Wow!
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