Transforming Power by Robert Linthecum
Linthecum, Robert. Transforming Power: Biblical Strategies for making a Difference in Your Community. Downers Grove, Illinois: Intervarsity Press, 2003.
One of the youth who began to actively participate in our Bible studies was a new Christian named Eva. She was an exceptionally beautiful teenager, physically mature for her age. Evan became even more radiant when she received Christ as her Lord and Savior. I began discipling her, building her up in the ‘nurture and admonition’ of the Lord.
My academic year was drawing to a close, and I was looking forward to returning home for summer vacation. Just before I was to leave my teenage ‘parish,’ however, Eva came to me greatly troubled. ‘Bob,’ she said, ‘I am under terrible pressure and I don’t know what to do about it. There is a very powerful gang of men in this project that recruits girls to be prostitutes. They are trying to force me to join them. I know it’s wrong, but what should I do about it?’
I didn’t know what to say to Eva. Nothing in my experience had prepared me to deal with something like this. After all, I was only a nineteen-year-old, middle-class white boy! The only thing I could think to do was to share with her what I had learned in Sunday school and in the Christian college I attended—to ‘resist evil and it will flee from you,’ to ‘commit your way unto the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.’ I urged her to stick with her Bible study group and not to give in to the gang’s demands.
And then I left for my summer vacation
Three months later, I returned to college and to that ministry. Eva had stopped attending the Bible study. When I asked about her, the other youth told me she had stopped coming about a month after I had left. I feared the worst! I went to Eva’s apartment in one of the project buildings to talk with her. When she answered the door and saw that it was me, she burst into tears. ‘They got to me, Bob,’ she said. ‘I’m one of their whores!’
‘Eva, how could you give in?’ I unsympathetically responded. ‘Why didn’t you resist?’
“I did resist!’ she replied. ‘I didn’t give in’ I was forced in.’ then she told me a story of sheer intimidation and terror. ‘First, they told me they would beat my father if I didn’t become one of their whores. I refused—and they beat him bad. Then they said my brother was next. I still refused, and he ended up in the hospital with both legs broken. Then they told me that if I didn’t yield, they would gang rape my mother. I knew they meant it, and I couldn’t allow that. So I gave in.’
‘But Eva,’ I said, ‘why did you let them intimidate you that way? Why didn’t you get some protection? Why didn’t you go to the police?’
‘Bob, you honkey,’ Eva responded in disgust, ‘who do you think the gang is?’
Suddenly it hit me. This gang of ‘very powerful men” Eva was describing was the police.
One of the youth who began to actively participate in our Bible studies was a new Christian named Eva. She was an exceptionally beautiful teenager, physically mature for her age. Evan became even more radiant when she received Christ as her Lord and Savior. I began discipling her, building her up in the ‘nurture and admonition’ of the Lord.
My academic year was drawing to a close, and I was looking forward to returning home for summer vacation. Just before I was to leave my teenage ‘parish,’ however, Eva came to me greatly troubled. ‘Bob,’ she said, ‘I am under terrible pressure and I don’t know what to do about it. There is a very powerful gang of men in this project that recruits girls to be prostitutes. They are trying to force me to join them. I know it’s wrong, but what should I do about it?’
I didn’t know what to say to Eva. Nothing in my experience had prepared me to deal with something like this. After all, I was only a nineteen-year-old, middle-class white boy! The only thing I could think to do was to share with her what I had learned in Sunday school and in the Christian college I attended—to ‘resist evil and it will flee from you,’ to ‘commit your way unto the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.’ I urged her to stick with her Bible study group and not to give in to the gang’s demands.
And then I left for my summer vacation
Three months later, I returned to college and to that ministry. Eva had stopped attending the Bible study. When I asked about her, the other youth told me she had stopped coming about a month after I had left. I feared the worst! I went to Eva’s apartment in one of the project buildings to talk with her. When she answered the door and saw that it was me, she burst into tears. ‘They got to me, Bob,’ she said. ‘I’m one of their whores!’
‘Eva, how could you give in?’ I unsympathetically responded. ‘Why didn’t you resist?’
“I did resist!’ she replied. ‘I didn’t give in’ I was forced in.’ then she told me a story of sheer intimidation and terror. ‘First, they told me they would beat my father if I didn’t become one of their whores. I refused—and they beat him bad. Then they said my brother was next. I still refused, and he ended up in the hospital with both legs broken. Then they told me that if I didn’t yield, they would gang rape my mother. I knew they meant it, and I couldn’t allow that. So I gave in.’
‘But Eva,’ I said, ‘why did you let them intimidate you that way? Why didn’t you get some protection? Why didn’t you go to the police?’
‘Bob, you honkey,’ Eva responded in disgust, ‘who do you think the gang is?’
Suddenly it hit me. This gang of ‘very powerful men” Eva was describing was the police.
posted by Eric Swanson @ 8:09 PM
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