The following is a letter written by a college student on a short-term missions trip.  As of this letter, she has been overseas for three weeks.  She was there with a team of college students through New Tribes Mission's summit program.  For information on "Summit" go to www.ntm.org

Friends and Family,

The darkness here is incredible and so sad. I was in the village Saturday afternoon visiting with a young girl and one of the ladies who is on staff here. The week before they had put a girl in a hut because she had just gotten her first "sikmun".  They call it a sikmun because the moon looked down on her and she became sick. It was her first monthly cycle. Every girls first time, they are put in these really small huts, which they burn at the end of the week. These girls are in there without any form of liquid for the entire week.

I asked the staff member that I was with if it was even possible to live that long without water and she was said yes it is but they are very unhealthy by the end of the week. So anyways, we were sitting and talking with this girl in the village and we got talking about the rite of passage since it was the end of the week and she would be coming out and they would have a "mumu"(feast) for her the next day. The girl told us they would be taking her out of the hut tonight and beating her along with all the other young girls who were not married. They would all be beaten by the older woman of the village with bamboo sticks. She was telling us that she was scared and trying to prepare herself for this (she looked to be about 20 years old).

The whole time I’m biting my tongue as hard as I could as to not lose it! I just wanted to run back home and cry! I was thinking, “how in the world do you prepare yourself for something like that”. They are beaten twice, once before their bride price is announced, which was that night, and again when their future husband presents the price to the father. The reason for the beating is so that they will be submissive to their husbands. If they learn submission now, their husbands will beat them less often and he won't go find another wife. Some of these girls that are getting beaten are as young as 10 years old!

Walking back home I was bawling, my heart was breaking for these girls and the bondage of sin and fear they live in. That whole day was really hard for me, I had to just take the rest of the day and go pray and read the Word and just thank God for the county, culture, and amazing family he had placed me in. It doesn't seem fair to me that these girls have to go through all of this.   How does God decide who will be tribal woman and who will be American woman?   I guess it is all the consequences of sin and we all deserve it.

The following day we were able to go to the "Mumu" and observe, it was a very interesting to see this aspect of their culture, and we felt for these girls who were viewed and treated like property. I would appreciate your prayers for us students, that our eyes would be opened to these things and for the natives living here that their hearts would be receptive of the Gospel. They have already been presented with it once, but there are very few believers here. So just pray that those who are believers would take it upon themselves to share with others, and that the Holy Spirit would be at work. I thank you all so much for praying, your prayers do make a difference.
 
Love,
Kristine