We walk in silence through the vacant streets of town. Monte Plata never looks like this on a Monday morning. The usual hustle and bustle stops as we pass. People come out of their stores, shops, and homes. Colorful umbrellas dot the shuffling mass as hundreds of us slowly follow the car covered in flowers and surrounded by mourners. We are on our way to the cemetery.
We are dressed in white, some come in their work clothes. Hundreds of students in their blue and pink school uniforms walk with their backpacks on as they follow the car that carries their teacher's body through the streets. There are no classes in our town today.
We embrace, walk arm-in-arm, nod in acknowledgment when we see those we know. Words are few. What is there to say?
I look next to me and see a mother with her three young children who are students at our school. She brought them to walk with us. I look over and see a group of our middle school girls walking together quietly. I wonder, "Which one of these girls is next?"
Today we mourn the loss of a daughter, mother, sister, friend, and teacher. She is a victim of senseless, merciless domestic violence. Her boyfriend now sits in jail a city away, charged with her murder. They took him from the Monte Plata jail yesterday for fear for his safety here. Even on the way back from the cemetery I see a mob of people outside of the Monte Plata jail looking for him. He robbed a family of their beloved sister. He robbed two young girls of their mother. Monte Plata cries for justice.
About a month ago I was conducting interviews with each one of our students. These interviews would be translated and sent out to their sponsors as part of our quarterly sponsorship projects. The interview questions were meant to be light-hearted, fun, and interesting. I asked them "Why do you think God made the sky blue?" and "What would you do if you were invisible for a day?" One of the questions asked, "If you could make a rule that everyone in the world had to follow, what would it be?"
I expected to receive the usual answers, that everyone has to be nice or that everyone needs to love each other or that all kids need to eat candy every day. They're kids, I wasn't expecting anything incredibly deep.
And I definitely wasn't expecting over 20 children to answer this way.
"I would say that no one is allowed to mistreat women."
"I would say that no one can abuse moms."
"I would say that no men can kill women."
"I would say that you can't abuse ladies in their house."
The follow-up question was "Why is that the rule you would choose?"
"Because that happens to lots of women."
"Because there are a lot of ladies in my neighborhood who are abused."
"Because women get killed all the time by men."
Many of our children see domestic abuse every single day. They hear it through the wooden walls of their homes. They watch it in their neighborhoods. They hear it, as do I, from across the street. They listen as punches are thrown, as horrible, ugly insults are hurled, and as women scream in pain and in shame. This is life for women in Monte Plata. This is life for women all over the world. It happens in America, too. It happens in your neighborhood. It's just that the walls are thicker in middle-class America. The houses are farther apart. The secrets are more carefully guarded.
I'm not writing today with answers. I feel as hopeless as many of you. I look into the faces of our little girls here and wonder which ones are already involved in the cycle of abuse. I wonder where it will lead them. I hope and pray that we are not walking through the streets of Monte Plata one day behind a car holding one of our students. I did that last summer. I never want to do it again.
The common refrain here over the past several days has been that there are no words. There are simply no words in situations like this. The Lord is the only comforter, the only One who can turn bitterness into forgiveness, and the dark ugliness of sin into something beautiful that still brings Him glory. For now, we pray. We pray in our own weakness. We are not without sin. We are not without guilt. We are sinners just as the man who sits in jail today is a sinner. But the Spirit intercedes for us. The Holy Spirit brings peace, comfort, forgiveness, new life, and glorious restoration. Please pray for girls and women all over the world who need His intercession today. They are your neighbors. They are your friends. They are your sisters and mothers. Pray for justice and protection of the abused. Pray for restoration for the abusers. Pray for peace. Pray for Love.
"In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words" Romans 8:26
