Yesterday I was blessed to stumble into the middle of a class here on my internship site's campus. I was running an errand, but left the building with so much more than I came for.
Vicky, an inspirational speaker brought in to speak to a group of unemployed women (many of whom are single mothers and victims of abusive relationships), saw her mother murdered by her father when she was 15 years old, had a baby when she was 16 years old, and lived in an abusive marriage for eight and a half years. Along the way, though, she managed to finish high school and get a college degree. She now does counseling at a domestic violence center here in town. Most remarkable about Vicky, though, is her perspective on life. I have never met someone in person that has had it quite as bad as Vicky; similarly, I have never met someone so willing to give glory to God. With every breath, Vicky praised God for everyday of her life, for his mercies, and for his blessings. She is someone with every reason to be bitter and discontent, but she lives her life with joy. I can't stress this enough: joy. Think about that as something completely separate from happiness. She glows, she can't help but smile, and she's contagious.
I was so inspired by her, and I only walked in on the last ten minutes of her spill. My greatest hope is that the women in the class were moved, that some form of hope was stirred deep within them. I didn't know what it was like to have issues until I worked here. 'I have too much homework,' or 'I can't find someone to go to dinner with me'... those are my issues. This population, though, are struggling to feed themselves and their families. They are uneducated not by choice but by circumstance.
I don't know how you walk away from a service profession like this, exposed to so much hurt and need in the community around you, not aching to start a revolution.
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