Loli was waiting for her next appointment when she realized there was a gap in her schedule. Her chair is routinely booked five hours straight with women who want their makeup done to perfection. On this day, however, there were three consecutive cancellations.

That’s odd, she thought.

Loli, colorful and eclectic, leads a Bible study on Monday nights for women called Daughters of the King. She decided to use this newly-created free time to prepare for the next one.

Just then, her assistant appeared. “There’s a walk-in,” she said. “Would you like to take her?”

Loli peered around the corner. The girl looked to be around 13. Loli didn’t like putting makeup on girls that young. As she looked out the window, she saw a senior man hurry away. He had dropped the girl off. She looked back at her. She stood there alone.

“Show her back,” she told her assistant.

“This is Aurora,” her assistant said as she walked Aurora toward Loli’s chair.

“Hey, dude!” Loli said, “How’s it going?”

“Okay,” Aurora said stiffly, her demeanor downcast. As she sat, Loli noticed something peculiar about her skin. Little tiny lines, almost like scars, covered her entire body, perfectly spaced apart, all the same length—about a half-inch.

She looked like she was covered in wallpaper.

That is the most peculiar condition I’ve ever seen, Loli thought.

“Close your eyes,” Loli said as she applied the makeup. As soon as Aurora’s eyes closed, Loli began to pray. It is something she does for everyone who sits in her chair.

She tried to engage Aurora in small talk. Nothing worked. Aurora just kept her head down and looked toward the floor. Loli had worked with downcast girls before, those with nonexistent self-confidence. But Aurora was like nothing Loli had seen before. Time after time she would lift Aurora’s chin so she could see her face, but it never stayed longer than a second.

All of a sudden, Aurora clutched Loli’s leg. “Can you help me?”

Loli’s eyes opened wide.

“Can you help me?” she asked again.

“Sure,” Loli said tentatively. “What’s up?”

“No!” Aurora said looking intensely into Loli’s eyes. “Can you help me?”

“I will certainly try. What do you need?”

“No. Not now. Can I have your number?”

Loli scribbled down her number on a piece of paper and, shell shocked by the outburst, went back to work on her face.

Finally, Aurora’s makeup was done. “How does it look?” Loli asked.

“Fine,” she replied, never even looking.

“Well, you’re very beautiful. Even without the makeup!”

Aurora handed her cash from her front pocket and walked out.

Loli waited for Aurora’s phone call but didn’t hear from her. Secretly she hoped that whatever it was that she needed, she was able to find with someone else. Or better yet, perhaps the problem just went away.

Nine days later, Loli's phone rang. “Hello?”

“Is this Loli?” the voice said.

“Yes, it is. What can I do for you?”

“You said you would help me.”

“Sure, I can help you.”

“No. You said you would help me.”

Suddenly Loli recognized the voice. “Aurora, is that you?”

“Well? Are you going to help me?”

“I don’t even know what the problem is!”

“Just come get me at a gas station.”

“Aurora, tell me what the problem is.”

“Just come get me. Here’s where I’m at.”

Loli took down the information and told Aurora that she would be there. She called two girlfriends, one of them a corrections officer, and they both agreed to go with her.

**

“Is that her?” one of her friends yelled out as she pointed toward a corner. Loli drove up. Aurora grabbed the handle, swung it open, and dashed in the front seat.

“Drive!” she yelled.

“Drive where?” Loli asked.

“Just drive anywhere!”

Loli quickly looked around to see if somebody was coming after her.

“Can you just drive, please?” Aurora pushed. Loli sped around the block, found someplace to pull into, and stopped the car. “I’m sorry, Aurora. We’re not going any further until you answer some questions.”

“You’re going to help me, right?” Aurora asked again.

“I don’t know if I even can! “

“No! He said you were going to help.”

Loli looked at her for a moment. “Who?”

“You’re His daughter. Hello? You don’t know Him?”

Dumbfounded, Loli just stared back at Aurora trying to use the moments to figure out what was going on.

“God. He’s real, right?” Aurora pressed.

“Yes. He is real. But how did you know I’m His daughter?”

“When I was in your chair, I saw the tattoo on your foot. It said that you were the daughter of the King. That’s when I knew. God’s the King, right? And you’re His daughter.”

Loli looked down at her tattoo that said daughter of the King, after the Bible study she led.

“Yes…I am a daughter of the King,” she exclaimed, breaking into tears. “I’ll help you. What do you need?”

Aurora began her story. The man that brought her into the makeup studio was her “grandfather” that had been selling her since she was three years old. The little lines on her skin were scars created by a john that purchased Aurora many times over the years and gets pleasure from inflicting razor slits in her skin. The night before Aurora met Loli, she was planning to commit suicide. She cried out to Buddha, Allah, Confucius and said, “Somebody’s got to be real!” But nobody answered. Finally, when she called out to the God she had heard about as a little girl, she heard a voice say, “Just hold on one more day. Wait for Me. My little daughter is coming for you.”

She heard a voice say, “Just hold on one more day. Wait for Me. My little daughter is coming for you.”

“That’s you, right?” she said.

All the women in the car burst into tears. “That day that I was brought in to see you, I was being made up for a man who purchased me for the night and requested that I be in heavy makeup. This is my life. Is there anything you can do to help me?”

Loli was at a loss. God, why did you bring this girl to me?

She spoke Scripture over Aurora and then the two hugged and cried, and Loli began to pray. Suddenly it occurred to her the glorious perfection of God’s plan. The reason she met a woman named Sarah earlier in the week was exactly for this moment. “I know how to help you, Aurora!” she exclaimed.

She called Sarah, who rescues girls taken from the sex trafficking trade and rehabilitates them, and the unmistakable hand of God revealed itself in Sarah’s first words. ”Just stay where you are. We’ll come and get her and do everything from here. We’ll give her a new life.”

It happened just as Sarah said.

Sarah sends Loli bi-annual reports on Aurora and her progress is remarkable. Having never gone to school before, Aurora has soaked up education, even gaining a college degree. But that is not all. She loves the God of the Bible, who not only sent His Son, but in this case, also sent His daughter.