Monica

Born in Zimbabwe
My father told me that when I was in my mother’s womb she wanted to have an abortion. A woman told her that she would die with the baby if she did that. After I was born she left me and married another man. My father was taking care of me.
My father was sick from an operation. When he was 7 both his parents died because of the war. A woman gave him something to kill him and every year he had to have an operation.
When I was 5 my mother’s brother stole me from my father. I came to Moz and became sick. They brought me back to Zim and my mother took me to stay with her. The man she married had another wife. They stayed together but not with that lady. The other wife was a witchdoctor. There’s a river there and my mother would sleep in her house and wake up in the river. When she separated with that man she came back to my father. When she came I was going to school. When she cooked food she wouldn’t leave anything for me. When I came from school she gave me a basket to sell things in the market. But in that time I was not sick. She accused me of witchcraft because I was not getting sick. She beat me everyday. My father died while I was still there because he refused to have another operation. It was after that that she ran away. Tears…
I don’t know where I went. A lady found me. She took me to her house. I was 10 years. My mother said, “I will kill her” (meaning Monica). She came to the house to fight with that lady. My brother called the police. I stayed there for 4 years until the lady got sick.
My mother brought me to moz with Nancy and Teresai. First we went to Chimoio where my mother’s father was. Then we went to Sena to my mother’s brother. Mother was sick in Chimoio and Sena. My uncle wouldn’t take her to the hospital. My mother had a little brother that said she needed to go to the hospital. In the hospital she didn’t have someone to stay with her. I stayed with her for 2 weeks. Even sick in the hospital she would beat me. Then she died. Before she died she told the uncle that the girls should not go back to the father in Zim; so we stayed there. When we ate we never had enough. We stole some money and bought bread when we could. We had to sneak food. I would keep some food for Teresai to give to her at night. My uncle was trying to marry me to an old man who he owed a debt. He was the son of a witchdoctor. When my brother heard about that he stole some money and ran away. His intention was to find a way to rescue us and bring us back to Zim. He met a missionary from Australia who was a friend of mama’s. (Mama told her that if he could get them out of there she would take care of them. She gave him enough money to get them back.) My uncle said we must take his son to have him put in an orphanage too and be able to control the girls. We took his son to another city by bus but left him there with enough money to return because there was no room in the orphanage. He went back and my brother was called by my uncle to bring us back. My brother said that he would never see us again. (That was the first week of January 2007; she was 15 at that time.)
My uncle had 5 wives. One day he was hiding and listening to his wives talk badly about him and I told them that there was a thief there not knowing that it was my uncle. He beat me. He also told me that he had killed his wife’s mother. In that year we worked in the garden and carried water for him to make alcohol. Teresai was 11 and she sold it for him. We carried water on our heads from a long way everyday. Our hair was falling out.
The day before we left my uncle made us carry water all day. (Something she didn’t realize was that her brother used the return transport money to pay the debt the uncle owed to the older man. He found another ministry to get some transport money so they could come here.)

Thoughts from Mama
Monica has been a delight to have in our home, gentle, sweet and confident. I think she is grateful to be living successfully and blessed. She was telling me just the other night that until she came to my house she never knew love from her family. She knew it was possible because of the lady who kept her for 4 years. I gave Monica her first hug. It was the first time she slept on a mattress. Her other siblings slept on them but she didn’t. Her mother rejected her from the womb and thoroughly while she lived, obviously favoring others.
She is a good example to the other girls. She has a boyfriend but I believe they are being careful to plan their lives properly. She visits his mother while he is away sometimes.
Monica has finished a course at a vocational school near by and lives there while she will be working and learning to manage her time and finances. She will finish her 12th year of school this year. She starts work soon, as a secretary at a local flour factory near by.
I am very proud of her, what she has overcome and become. She has been severely rejected and severely loved. She loves God back and credits Him for how her life is blossoming. God has been her counselor and she is whole through Him. I smile when I think of her. God is good!

Lord, You know the hopes of the helpless. Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them. You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed, so mere people can no longer terrify them. Psalm 10:17&18
The Lord replies, “I have seen violence done to the helpless, and I have heard the groans of the poor. Now I will rise up to rescue them, as they have longed for me to do.” Psalm 12:5