The Four Letter Word: Rape

 names in this post have been changed or withheld
1994 
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Bao stepped forward to introduce me to the male in the background who had been quiet and still. He'd had his body half turned away from us and was smoking a cigarette. Dunhill cigarettes I would later learn. They were a luxury cigarette made by the British American Tobacco company and were exported mostly in Europe, South Asia and Indonesia. The glossy burgundy box with gold trim that they were sold in would soon become a familiar fixture to me but I didn’t know that yet.

He heard Bao speak to him in Vietnamese and turning he immediately flicked his cigarette to the ground, stamped it out with his dress shoe and turned to look at me. I looked up at him. He was tall, especially for a person of Asian descent. This man was nearly six foot with broad shoulders and built. It would be years later in 1998 when the movie Replacement Killer’s was released in theaters and as I watched it I would know who he looked like. Chow Yun Fat. They could have easily been twins. He was wearing khaki slacks, casual brown dress shoes, a brown belt and a chambray blue Ralph Lauren button dress shirt. His dark hair was smoothed back in place with a slick hair product. 

My circumstances while being gone were about to change.  It wasn't Bao's fault. He didn't know what would happen. If he had known he wouldn't have dared let me go. Bao had never taken advantage. He had always tried to protect me however deep in sin himself. Situations or opportunities may arise in life and unfortunately not every individual will choose not to take advantage of such and the people in them. 

RAPE 

It is an ugly word. 

It's fitting it's a four letter word. 

It's a dirty word but...

The girl who was raped isn't. 

You aren't less than. 

It's not your fault. 

You aren't tainted.

You are LOVED.

God will heal your wounds. 

You are perfectly beautiful and LOVED by a perfect God. 

"The Lord is close to the broken-hearted and
 He saves those who are crushed in spirit" 
~ Psalm 34:18

I AM THE DAUGHTER OF A KING 
Galatians 3:26 

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