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Joy Tan-Chi Mendoza
Joy Tan-Chi Mendoza
I asked my parents if I could hang out at school in the evening with my friends, but they suggested that
Irene and Lana come over and spend the night at our house instead.
My parents were going to be out teaching a Bible study in Makati City that night. They felt more
comfortable about having my friends over, rather than me being out of the house.
I was raped and sexually abused on my very own bed by a total of seven men.
At around six o’clock in the evening, the doorbell rang, and my dad’s cousin came in through the gate
to deliver five sacks of rice. He delivered the rice every month so it was nothing out of the ordinary.
But he had no idea that a band of robbers had slipped in through the gate behind him. They were
heavily armed with guns and knives and forced their way in through the front door.
Soon, the 10 robbers managed to tie up my younger sisters, my younger brother, the two helpers, the
driver, my dad’s cousin, his wife and child, and the missionary family who rented the apartment below
us.
I was raped and sexually abused on my very own bed, in my bathroom, in my brother’s room by a total
of seven men.
They said vile things to me, made me do unimaginable, perverted acts, and eventually tied me up and
laid me down by the entrance of the front door. I saw Irene’s backpack torn open with her things
scattered on the floor.
Irene and Lana had arrived at 7pm as planned, with no clue that they were walking into a nightmare. It
was not until later on in the evening when we were all tied up together that I found out Irene had been
raped by four men in the master bathroom where my assault started. Lana had been taken down to the
apartment below by one of the men and was raped there.
Choosing hope
It’s common to lose hope when you go through sexual abuse, molestation, incest or rape. I know the
feeling of losing hope — hope for the future, hope for acceptance, hope for security and protection,
hope that you can ever be whole and undamaged again. However, I claimed promises like Jeremiah
29:11.
God is a loving, caring Father who is mindful of us. Here is what God says about Himself: “Can a woman
forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but
I will not forget you.” (Isaiah 49:15)
What a tender description of God’s love for us! He doesn’t forget any of us, no matter what we have
been through.
God loves us so much; He gave us His own son, Jesus Christ, to die for us (John 3:16). Jesus was
abused for our sake. He was mocked and humiliated, abandoned by those who were closest to Him.
He endured all this so that His death could bring us eternal life.
The consequences of sin — heartache, hardships, problems, pain and multiplied sorrows — these are