“There was a 15-year-old girl in our church who got pregnant,” “Edgar”, the young pastor began. “And at first, I felt fear from my own wounds: ‘How are people going to view me as a pastor, that I have failed because of what just happened in my church: this girl got pregnant?’ But I was able to recognize the pull of my past and bring it to the Lord. He reminded me of what I experienced through Breaking Barriers. I knew I needed to treat her the same way, to give her what I had received.”
So, he went to her with compassion and invited her back into church because she had stopped coming out of shame and fear. Other young people her age followed his example and welcomed her back. “I was so taken by how my response completely changed her experience. People get put out of the church when something like this happens and sometimes, they suicide. Her parents and the child’s father wanted her to abort the child and rejected her for returning to church,” he continued.
But now, instead of her story ending in tragedy, she has hope and a new beginning.
