Every Sunday in our church there is time for testimony, prayer request or just sharing.
This morning Philip Steyn, a young farmer who farms about 15km outside town, stood up and told us of a shocking incident that happened on Friday. While he was on his tractor bailing hay, one the Zulu women who lives on his farm came running up to him and asked him to phone for an ambulance. The women's two small daughters were attacked and raped on the way to school. The youngest is six and the oldest nine. The youngest has already been released from hospital but the older one is still in hospital and very badly injured. Philip was very emotional when he told us what happened and asked us to pray for them, especially for the older one who's name is Busi.
So where ever you are pray for Busi. I don't know if one could ever really recover from such an awful trauma.
Rape is a common occurrence in South Africa, the statistics are shocking. I don't know the actual figures but ten's of thousands of women are raped each year in this country. The problem is that with our high HIV/AIDS infection rates, rape can be a death sentence.
There is a common believe, spread by Sangoma's (witch doctors) (yes we still have them here), that sex with a virgin will cure you of AIDS , this could have been the motive for this attack Rape victims are automatically put on a course of ARV's (Anti retrovirals) to try and prevent infection but this does not always help.
Wanted to post a piece about my fishing trip on Wednesday but this weighed too heavily on my heart.
7 comments:
Oh, this is just so awful, Phillip! My heart goes out to those two little girls and their Mother. I hope the perpretator(s) will be captured and dealt with severely!
Perhaps such advice is why the Bible says "suffer not a witch to live." I will pray for the girls, the mother, and your farmer friend. Perhaps, too, we should pray for the rapist, hard as that is.
Yes Gorges we actually did pray for the rapist in church this morning.
Oh, Phillip, such little girls. My heart breaks. If the rapist was, indeed, convinced by a witch doctor that he needed to have sex with a virgin, then perhaps he is as much a victim as they, but the little ones are the innocents and they will suffer longest. How sad it is.
— K
Kay, Alberta, Canada
An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel
what the heck is going on in this world :(
This is just terrible but I know about the witch doctor's beliefs about virgin girls. With the incidence of HIV in Africa, I guess there are desperate measures for treatment though it is no excuse. I will pray for Busi.
Oh no,Phil, that is just so awful. I 'm praying for Busi, her younger sister, her mother and, yes, the rapist. Love Jo
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