His River is Pure...

  Evelyn charged into my office with a look of deep concern on her face. As she took a seat I could see the tears welling up in her eyes. “We have to do something…” She then explained to me that she had heard that one of the girls in the basico program (7^th, 8^th, and 9^th grade) was pregnant. Evelyn poured out her heart and her concern regarding the lack of education in sexual purity and the fact that

Two of our Basico Girls 

 in Guatemalan culture abstinence and sexual purity is something that is not talked about…. Even within many churches. In fact, in many communities divorce is considered an unforgivable sin, and for that reason many people will not get married for fear of divorce down the road. Many times, this breeds a culture of people who accept living together, having sex before marriage, and having children together out of wedlock even within the church.

  So… as any good researcher.. I started searching the internet for videos IN SPANISH that were relevant… NOT CHEESY… and actually addressed the topic of sexual purity well… AND FROM A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE. Eventually… I came across “Love Without Regret” which is a video of a live presentation which took place in the United States and was presented by a soon-to-be-married couple in their twenties. AND IT’S GOOD!! And.. it was dubbed and subtitled in Spanish… GOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLL!!! J

  I would be lying if I said that I had confidence from the beginning that everything would go PERFECTLY… In fact, when I shared with a few people the weekend before and told them what we had planned… people told me their personal horror stories in attempts to do the same thing. I also had NEVER put on ANY form of a purity presentation before… let alone in a SECOND LANGUAGE…. So, I did the only other thing I could do… I prayed. I prayed the days before… I prayed the Monday before… I prayed as I prepared the room and set up desks.. I prayed through the hallways of the school… I prayed through my office where the boys would be meeting… I prayed… and I prayed… and I prayed.

  On Tuesday morning, as I stood before approximately 70 teenagers I can’t explain the peace and the confidence I felt. I explained to the students that we were going to be watching a movie and discussing sexual purity in the days to come… and to my shock only one giggle was released. (VICTORY!!!) I explained to them that we would watch the video together on Tuesday and Wednesday and then divide the group for discussion on Thursday. After starting the video, I expected giggling… conversations… joking… but what I noticed instead was SILENCE… FOCUS… AND INTEREST. There were a few comments made to friends… but these kids were CAPTIVATED. WOW. The same thing happened on Wednesday when we finished the video… the students PAID ATTENTION… they were actually INTERESTED AND LEARNING about sexual purity. WOW.

Some of our students watching a team's presentation

  Then, came Thursday. Evelyn and I had both decided to share parts of our personal testimonies with the young ladies (It’s not an easy thing when you’re talking about your sexual past in front of complete strangers). However, once again when I stood before the 39 young ladies I felt such peace. Evelyn and I both shared scriptures which pointed the ladies to living and maintaining a pure lifestyle and shared what that looked like. Evelyn shared parts of her testimony, and I noticed that AS SOON AS she started talking  about her past… a hush fell over the crowd… the girls leaned in… and THEY LISTENED. I could see them nodding along at times. WOW….

  Then, I got up to share my story. I used a white paper heart as part of my illustration. I explained that when I was 11 years old, my parents divorced. It was difficult not having my father in my home during such a formative stage in my life, and I began looking for love in other relationships and with other young men. At the age of 14, I lost my virginity and that started a pattern which played out in my early twenties as well. I explained to the girls that at one point in my life I didn’t care about having sex… it didn’t “matter” to me and I thought it was “no big deal” however… what I didn’t realize was that every time I had sex with a man who was not my husband… it was like giving a piece of my heart away… so as I talked about having sex with my boyfriends or other young men… I tore a piece of my paper heart and let it flutter to the ground… again I tore a piece… again I tore a piece… again I tore a piece.. until I only had a small ragged piece of my heart left.

  I paused for a moment… THERE WAS COMPLETE SILENCE IN THAT MOMENT…. As I looked around the crowd… one young lady in particular stood out to me. Jessica was sitting at the very front of the group… and tears were running down her cheeks. My heart leapt inside me. Just from watching Jessica over the past few months I could tell that she was struggling with her identity… with relationships with young men… and with her own purity. There were a number of other young ladies who also had tears in their eyes. All I could think was… MY GOD… YOU’RE WORKING IN THIS MOMENT.

  I continued by holding up my shredded ragged heart, and I explained to the girls that this is what I would one day have to give to my husband… and that is not God’s plan. I explained to them that God only wants the best for our lives, and when we’re born we are given a new, clean, complete hearts (held up another complete, whole heart I had on the table). It is God’s plan for us to one day arrive at our wedding day with that heart to give to our spouses. I admitted to the girls that I understood that there were some of them in the room that were not virgins, and that I also am not a virgin… but they could make a choice.. today.. to ask for forgiveness and to choose to live a lifestyle of purity. It doesn’t matter what we had done in our past… all that mattered was what we chose to do from that day forward.

  When it came time to pray, five girls raised their hands to ask for forgiveness from their sexual past (Jessica included) and ten girls raised their hands stating that they wanted to make a commitment to

The Hearts We Gave to Our Girls

live a pure lifestyle from this day forward. We gave each and every girl a laminated white heart with 1 Timothy 4:12 written on it, and encouraged them to be an example of purity to others. WOW. ONLY GOD.

So, I share this story to encourage you. Despite not knowing every needed vocabulary word in Spanish and despite not knowing how to even really approach this subject… GOD MOVED. I have realized that He has called me into a season of doing things that I HAVE NEVER DONE BEFORE… and it’s a place where I MUST DEPEND ON HIM much more than I ever have in the past. It would have been easy for me to make excuses about not knowing the language “well enough” or not being “comfortable” talking about sexual purity… however… I trusted Him to make up the difference… and HE DID. HE MOVED AND TOUCHED HEARTS DESPITE ANYTHING I DID OR SAID. So, don’t be afraid… if He’s calling you to do it.. HE WILL PROVIDE… even if you don’t conjugate all the verbs correctly J .

Thank you for reading my blog. 

Blessings,

Meaghen