After a false start at leaving Waco, Texas, both Monica and I accepted whatever jobs we could get, which is to say Monica was hired to the most challenging inner city school in Waco and I got a job with very high turnover to recruit for the Job Corps. I was about to find out firsthand why.
Nevertheless, I did enjoy offering hope to youth aged 16-24 who needed a second chance at life. These kids came from halfway houses being treated for addictions, juvenile prison, alternative school, some just wanted to leave the ghetto or gang life secretly. Others came from college, up to their eyeballs in debt, unable to find a job. Most had exhausted most of their hope.
A single mother, who was barely our of her teens, sat dejectedly during her interview. She was dressed in her best, which was provocative and risque. Her eyes were hard and untrusting, and her comments terse. When I asked her why she wanted to join Job Corps, she teared up a little and said her little one deserved better than the late nights and her stressed state of being when she returned. At that point, I sensed the Holy Spirit rising up in compassion and I sensed I needed to deliver a word of knowledge and encouragement. So after checking it over with the Holy Spirit, I looked into her glistening eyes and told her: "It's not your fault, and God loves you dearly inspite of your guilt--He has already forgiven you."
Without skipping a beat, she acknowledged and continued: "I just have a hard time forgiving myself with the choices I made in the past". She knew more about what the Holy Spirit was doing than I. And that was fine with me. Somehow, the rest of the words exchanged and I did not understand them nor do I remember them, but the words mattered to her, and she left the interview grateful, relieved, and awkward--she wasn't sure to hug me or shake my hands... but she had softened because God spoke during a Federal Interview.
She never returned, and to my knowledge she did not enter the Job Corps, but I do know God is with her.
~ Shien Yahweh Ro'i "The Lord our shepherd who cares for His people like a flock"
