Laura's Story

Rahab’s Rope has twenty years of experiences and stories of the women and children we have helped. Sometimes, as I am looking through my journals, I read a story that I had forgotten about and when my memory is jogged it brings faces to mind with lots of emotions. Some time ago, I was praying with a young woman that had been rescued. She wanted me to pray for her sick father and told me she was hoping to go home later that month. She had a very sweet but sad face. I wanted to hear her story and began asking her questions. We will call her Laura. Laura’s family arranged her marriage when she was young. Shortly after marriage she became pregnant. When Laura was seven months pregnant her husband left her. Her family was trying to help but didn’t have much to offer. Laura had a little girl and took a job in a garment factory. The work was hard and paid little, not even enough for Laura to support herself and her baby. Someone offered her a job in Mumbai making lots of money. In desperation, Laura accepted the job offer and left her baby with her mother. Upon arriving in Mumbai, she found the job offer fake and was trapped into sex trafficking. Laura was trapped for about nine years. She was rescued about a year ago and has been going through the court process before she can be released to her family. We have been praying for her and counseling her through this process. She has been able to talk with her family and that is how she knows her father is ill. Laura was very proud to tell me that her parents have kept her daughter in school and had just completed the seventh grade. She was beaming with pride over her daughters’ accomplishments. While at the aftercare home Laura has been attending our life skill classes and vocational training. She has also been making one of our most popular bracelets and saving her money for when she gets to go home and see her daughter for the first time in eleven years. Laura did get to go home, try to imagine the reunion.

Pray for Laura, her daughter and family.