Dear Pastor,

I am a 17-year-old young lady who goes to a prominent high school in Kingston. The problem is that I have a secret life where I dance at nights and have sex with patrons drinking at the club's bar. I think I'm addicted to sex and after dancing I go home and sleep with my stepbrother whom I have been having unprotected sex with since I was 13 years old.

However, I just found out I am 3 months pregnant and have a serious vaginal infection. Whenever I get up my shorts is wet and the discharge has a foul odour. My stepbrother says the baby is not his and he too has a watery discharge. I cannot tell my parents as they have threatened to put me out if I get pregnant again. I have done four abortions and the doctors advised me not to do another.

Please give me your fatherly advice and please pray for me.

L.M., St. Andrew, Jamaica

Dear L.M.,

Your letter will cause anyone's body to "run cold". I know that many young girls are engaged in prostitution to pay their way through school. It is a way of life for many. I have asked some teenage girls how they got into prostitution and their responses are usually the same. They say their fathers don't support them and their mothers don't care about them and what they do. In fact, many mothers are aware that their daughters are prostituting themselves and they are supported by their high school daughters who are practising prostitution.

There are those in society who condemn girls like you for selling their bodies to send themselves to school. They say that the girls should go and look work, but they have no jobs to offer these girls. Some girls would be glad to work in stores or other places for a few hours and earn enough to pay their way through school. Unfortunately, some store owners only give $700.00 for a day's work and only on a Saturday. What can that do for a girl who has many needs? May God help the society in which we live. I say, shame on men who refuse to support their daughters and cause them to become prostitutes, go go dancers and back door masseuse workers.

You know what it is like to go to school during the day and work at night to earn enough to send yourself to school. Unfortunately, you are young and na•ve and you have not been able to play the game as older and wiser women. And wretched men have taken advantage of your naivety. May God have mercy on you and save you from calamity.

Your parents have not been good. I speak frankly and without fear. They have done nothing to protect you. They have failed as parents and now you are pregnant, again. And this time you are suffering from an unusual discharge. You need to see the doctor immediately. Tell him/her what you are experiencing and please, do not terminate the pregnancy. The matter of who is the father has to be dealt with later. Right now, you need to run to a medical doctor.

Your stepbrother and yourself should stop sleeping together. He too may need to go to the doctor. The doctors will advice you what to say to him. I want you to contact me, as soon as you have seen the doctor. I will do my best to get help for you.

Pastor