Dear Pastor,

Keep up the good work and may the Lord continue to bless you. I need your help urgently. The first time I wrote you, my letter was published in THE STAR under the headline 'No respect after the baby'. That was in April. In your response you told me to leave him but I did not. Now I am dying for some help. I have been with my child's father for six years and I have nothing to show from our relationship, not even a panty. I have a child for him and every time I ask for something for the baby I end up getting upset with him.

One night, about 3:30 a.m., a girl called him on the phone. He spoke to her for about an hour and would you believe that he and I live and sleep together? He spoke to her with me beside him as if he did not care whether or not I heard. Whenever I speak to him about the things that are hurting me, he says he doesn't care about how I feel because he is sexy and cute and girls will always want him. He says that there is nothing that I can do to stop that. This is the father of my child, the man whom I have been with for six years.

forced to beg

When what he has been doing to me gets to my head, I get mad, then he beats me like I am his daughter. I am a beautiful, sexy and good-looking woman. I am currently not working, and so I am forced to beg money to buy things for my child. I always tell him that I will call the police on him but he tells me that any day that I am bad enough to do that, any day he is back on the road, I will be the first one to die. He is not a man to play with. I cannot sleep because his girl calls me day and night saying that my babyfather does not want me. "Him soon put yuh out and mi soon move in," she keeps saying. She has also said: "when me inna di house with the baby, me and him a sex ... every day him tell mi that ah mi him want, not yuh."

As I write this letter, tears are in my eyes. I am sick and tired. I can't take it anymore. I love him so much but I am asking God to take away this love that I have for him. Please, I am asking for your last and final advice on this. Remember me in your prayers. God bless you and keep up the good work.

T.P., St. Catherine, Jamaica

Dear T.P.,

You want to hear from me again. Ok, that's nice. What I have to tell you is the same. Leave this man. Go to the police and report the matter. Tell them he has threatened you. Ask them for their protection as you move out.

God will take care of you. Stop allowing this man to abuse you.

You are not a floor mat, don't make yourself one.

Pastor