7.18.09(B)

Quite the day…see 7.18.09(A) for the plan. Most of the day worked out as planned up through the delivery of the furniture to the woman who had just moved into the projects. The plan to go visit the other single mom with the newborn was delayed until tomorrow due to a change of her plans.

I replaced that with the appointment change with a visit to see Tammy (see references below) who is in drug rehab at a local hospital. She’s finishing up week 3 of a 6 week program. Just before going into rehab she found out she was pregnant. Tammy had been clean for nearly 6 months when she relapsed. She was on the streets for several weeks before she found out she was pregnant and decided to make a change in her life. As far as I know she has had no one visit her during her first 3 weeks in rehab. That’s a tough place to be and to have to do it on your own. I intentionally decided to wait until now to visit her as she has had a hard time understanding encouragement and not being enabled by it. It was good to see her and to see that it really looks like she is making some significant changes in her life.

While it was a full day, the real fulfilling part for me came from the time I was able to spend with the volunteer from Otter Creek who worked with me. This was his first time doing a ride along. He’s had his share of ups and downs in life and we were able to talk about his experiences along side the people we met. I learned a great deal from him and was touched by his willingness to express his frustrations with the current state of the church and his desire to see it better connect to life. I continue to be impressed with how getting people to roll up their sleeves in service to others creates the opportunity to see Jesus.