One True Love

Valentine's Day can be rough. Single, married, divorced, dating or recovering from all of the above; there's a lot of pressure. Between tv ads for diamond pendants (what exactly is the purpose of a 'pendant'?) and the sympathy cards from happily married friends, it makes for a tough 24 hrs smack in the middle of February. I have no idea if guys feel the squeeze or not, but for us gals just making it through the day is a win. And here's the thing: I love my life! I love what I get to do, I love my friends, I love my church, I have a great family. If Feb 14th weighs this heavily on me, what does it do to someone who doesn't love their current life? Over the past 36 hours I have had the opportunity to witness the effects of this 'holiday'.

We had big plans for Valentine's Day: Midnight Outreach in Baton Rouge in the mid-day and then off to New Orleans after that. God is doing a really cool thing right now in allowing us to partner with a great church in New Orleans called Church of the King. We're working with their outreach team a little to help them launch some new ways to reach the people around them; including a Midnight Outreach for people tangled up in the sex trade. More about that in a later post...

So, we're at the Dream Center packing chocolate, pulling thorns off roses and preparing ourselves for a long night of God-only-knows-what. We are pumped!!! Then we get a call and everything changes. Instead of going to Hooters to give roses to the girls serving cold draft and chicken wings, we're headed to Scotlandville to meet with a girl who just told us that she's contemplating killing herself and her two small children. Hold the wings and hit the gas.

We find Trisha* in an apartment that would need renovations before it would be nice enough to condemn. She has no heat, no lights and no water. There's almost no furniture and the whole place smells like a dumpster. We hop out of the van and hand her a rose. She takes it and tries to smile. While Charity talks to her we make conversation with the neighbors and give the guys some chocolate. After a while Charity asks me to come inside with them. I get a quick rundown on the situation and then we pray for her. As we're praying I get that nudge from the Holy Ghost so when we finish I ask her, "Do you know who Jesus is?". She shakes her head and says, "No. I think maybe he's in the bible but I never read it." (Selah)

We take her through a brief teaching on Jesus being the Son of God and dying for our sins, and in the back of my head I'm thinking, 'she almost died today and took her 2 sons with her...and she doesn't know who He is'. We have so much work left to do.

Charity led her in a salvation prayer and she accepted Jesus into her life as her Lord and Savior. How awesome is God? She came to Ladies Thrive today and brought her two little boys. They're coming back to the Dream Center to meet with us again on Tuesday and we're going to help her sort through some of the pain and chaos. God's grace amazes me. For Valentine's Day she got a rose and salvation. She got hope. Jesus is the gift that keeps on giving. All glory to God!

*not her real name