This morning Eleanor and I went to visit a Mum of a girl in our group. This girl (let's call her Ana) waited behind after one session to talk privately to us about the fact that her parents are separating. We really wanted to talk to the Mum (let's call her Vitória), to find out the truth and to see if there is some way we can offer hope for her marriage. Vitória was very happy to have a visit, she was very open to share about the story of her family. She got married when she was 15 and after 7 months of marriage big problems had already arisen. 20 years later their problems are unresolvable. It seems like they share the same house, but nothing of their lives. He works, goes out and sleeps. He doesn't spend any time with his children nor give any money to their needs. A sad example of this is when their son was bitten by a dog and needed to go to a hospital for treatment (it was during the time that buses were not working), he refused to give his wife money for a taxi, even though his wallet was full. What I really admired in Vitória was the way she tries to teach her children to love, honour and respect their father, I sensed no bitterness in her for the way she had been treated, just a sadness. Vitória has very little support from family but does have a church that encourages her.
It seems that actually this marriage is beyond help and that it is in their best interests to separate. Now, we need to seek God's wisdom in how to help Ana cope with this. She is a delightful girl, who loves to go to church (she goes 4 times a week). Ana was very touched by a talk given on God as our Father. Eleanor shared about how our earthly fathers can let us down, but how God has chosen us to be His children, Ana was honest enough to say that she doesn't like her father. Please pray for us to have wisdom when dealing with sensitive and difficult issues like these.