A flash fiction story inspired by Street Store, a ministry initiative whereby multiple local churches in various cities partner with each other to serve precious people within their most vulnerable communities. All visitors to Street Store are offered a dignifying experience of being ministered to by multiple teams of dedicated individuals who pull out all the stops to make each one of their guests feel special at every ministry station. First of all, visitors are treated with a meal while sitting down in a restaurant area. From there, they are guided through the shopping area where they can select clothing items for themselves. Finally, each visitor has the opportunity to be ministered to in a one-to-one setting in a special prayer area.

“What is your name, sweetheart?” No answer. The shaking, shivering little girl is petrified. She has the tiny fingers of her left hand in a death grip clutched around a Barbie doll. She is nurturing the misshapen wrist of her right hand flush against her chest. Her short clothes are thin, tattered and torn rags, her baby-sized jersey is partially frayed and it barely covers three quarters of her arms. She is filthy, covered in scrapes and bruises and there are streaks of dried blood on her exposed legs.

Twenty minutes ago, panic ensued among the volunteers when the obvious-severely traumatized little girl was brought into the private office area. Neither the security team’s investigative interviews with queuing visitors outside the gate, nor their 90-minute canvas of the immediate vicinity around the venue revealed any clues as to where the little girl had come from. She had simply wondered in off the the street and nobody knows who she is or where she had come from. One thing, however, was crystal clear to all the volunteers – little Janey Doe is in desperate need of vastly more than just a meal and some winter woolies. Her entire life depends on what happens next.

It was Fiona, the 22-year-old medical student volunteer who handed Janey the Barbie doll before wrapping a plush pink blanket around her and taking a seat right next to her. Sixteen years ago, Fiona WAS Janey, a heartbreakingly vulnerable, locked-in little girl, silenced by unspeakable trauma. Like Janey, Fiona’s rescuers also gave her a Barbie doll, the universal best friend of any little girl anywhere in the world. But Janey and Fiona are nothing like Barbie dolls, because no toy company makes Barbie dolls with shattered hearts, slashed souls or broken bodies.

Fiona knows that only the redeeming, unconditional love of Jesus, her Messiah, can unlock and restore Janey. ONLY JESUS CAN CHANGE THE LOCKED-IN ABANDONMENT FROM UNSPEAKABLE HURT INTO THE UNLOCKED ADORATION OF INDESCRIBABLE BEAUTY.