This young woman was ostracized by her family for her choice of a man they did not choose for her. Like something straight of old-timey literature, right? Maybe so, but marriage arrangement by the parents is woven into the fabric of a large number of the world’s cultures even today. It can be easy for us in America to assume that our system, which feels so natural and right to us, is not the modus operandi for most people on Earth.

After her family cut her off, her beloved’s family put significant pressure on him to withdraw his attentions, which he did–but not before they were expecting their first child. Feeling utterly lost and hopeless, with no means to care for herself or her baby, this frightened girl sought refuge and help at the only place she thought would still accept her–a Christian counseling center near her home in one of Indonesia’s most staunchly-Islamic provinces.

What she found there was not only the acceptance and help she sought, but all-out sacrificial love from the center’s staff and director. They provided for her immediate needs and, gradually, were able to restore her to her family and the husband she had lost to the social and religious pressures of their part of the world. Her outlook on life and hope for the future, now, are a world away from her hopelessness and helplessness of not very long ago.

Taken in the counseling center against a curtain backdrop using window light. Canon 85mm lens, 1/40 @ f/4.0, ISO 800.