Today I was walking downtown on a street I don't normally take as I had to mail a letter. I dropped the mail in the box and continued down the street where I saw a young lady begging for money. I stopped where she was sitting and introduced myself to her. I asked her how old she was and she told me that she was 18. I asked if she was hungry and she told me that she had a few carrots in her pocket.
I told her who I was and that I directed a ministry focused on teens and that I wanted to help her by buying her a meal. I told her if that was ok with her I would like to treat her to a warm meal at Trinitea's Cup. She immediately got to her feet and walked down the street with me. I engaged her in conversation as we walked and found out that she knew about Trinitieas from a couple of teens I have recently spent time getting to know.
We sat down and immediately she began to pour out her heart. She was an open book and answered any question I asked. This was the first day in her life that she has ever been on the street begging for money. It was a place that she thought she never would be. Life had changed drastically over the last few days and she was asked to leave the home she had been living in. She was now forced to stay at a friends overnight and spent the days just trying to get through another day. She lost her job, her friends have turned on her and now she is facing criminal charges.
She started to share her story of how she ended up in this position and sadly the common denominator showed up again. She was doing well in life, had great relationships with her family, was a very good girl until one day. That one day almost four years ago, is the day she started to smoke weed. One time turned into many times and then she had to steal to support her habit. In the theft she broke relationships with many people close to her and now she has very few people that trust her.
She talked about how much she enjoys helping people and how she used to take her paycheck from work and set a portion of it aside each time to help the poor. She talked about helping her friends that are going through hard times, by being there for them. She talked about going to church and believing there was a God. She talked and talked and talked and it was good for her to be able to do that.
I saw before a very broken young lady. I also saw a child that God loves so much. My prayer is that we know how to help her. She needs someone in her life that she can trust, someone who will help her through her challenges. She is not on drugs at this time and has been drug free for almost two years. That is good news!!!
Pray for this young lady. Her initials are L.L. and that is all I can share at this point. I plan to meet with her again in the next couple of days and have a better idea of what we can and should do to help her.
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