Pray for Yoslena (y Cara)

Hey everyone, this blog is on the heavy side, but it's here to charge you to pray. I am copying this entry from my friend/coworker Cara's blog about her friend Yoslena. As a little introduction, you should know that Cara has invested a lot of time building relationships with people in the DR who are outcasts even in their own village. On more than one occasion she has been asked by people who call themselves Christians why she spends time with some people she continues to invest in. That being said, here is the most recent part of Yoslena's story:

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(from Cara's blog)

i start this to say that i don’t discuss anyone’s personal life as a means of exploitation. i only feel the need to talk about this because it is about someone i love and would imagine that if you’re reading this you care as well. this blog serves as a place for me to talk about my life and to keep me connected with the people that care to know what God has been doing with me here in the dominican republic.

yoslena, poor, confused, illiterate, hard, rough, child… some of you know that i recently found out that she was pregnant. she just had her 16th birthday. i’d been trying to help her figure out the pregnancy thing and make sure that she was healthy. it’s like a war… taking a girl from the batey, trying to show her that she can amount to something more than what is around her, looking for God’s beauty in it. i admit this has been a year of defeat for me with yoslena. each time i see her following in the footsteps of her grandmother, mother and older sister, and most other women she has to look up to, i feel as though i could have done more. that i’ve failed. all i hope is for better things for yoslena.

i found out today that through a series of events, which are still unclear to me, that yoslena had lost the baby at five months. her older sister, yordi, had taken her to the hospital and they induced labor. yoslena is okay… she still seems really weak and i believe is still feeling pain that is possibly due to her kidney stones. ashley and i went to her house immediately when we found out. we were greeted with lots of… “cara is coming to see yoslena, and cara, yoslena had the baby.” more than anything i feel for her and what she has to go through with peoples’ comments. she was sitting in her house, a heated pot of flies and sweat, so i invited her over for a bit so that she could rest at our house without having crowds of people around her.

i don’t know what i think. my heart just continues to break for her. the worst part about it is that i believe she lost the baby due to a friend of the “father” beating her up. apparently he had hit and kicked her in the back.

all i can think of right now is that i desire fruit for her life. ashley gave her an apple today. it symbolizes something that could happen in her life. yoslena can be fruitful. God can make anything beautiful. i just pray that He starts to prune away all of the bad in her life, all of the evil, all of the hurt, everything that tells her she isn’t worthy. pray for her.