My cool day.

I love when stuff like this happens:

My sister told me earlier in the week that she was having their friend Edith down to dinner tonight. Edith lives in their old neighborhood and is about 90 years old, no kidding. She's as spry as they come and has an adorable personality. It's a real hike for my sister to drive up to where Edith lives to pick her up, go back home, cook dinner, spend time chatting, then take Edith back home and drive home herself, so I offered to get off work early this afternoon, pick Edith up and get her to my sister's since I work only about 10 minutes from Edith's house and would be heading toward my sister's anyway.....besides the fact that I stayed for dinner too!

Anyway, my friend Gina is out of town again, so I went to let her dog out before I went to Edith's. I was running a little ahead of schedule and needed to stop at the drug store, so I used that time wisely and got that errand out of the way. When I went to pay, the cashier kept talking to this man (who had already paid) for a couple of minutes (which seems like an eternity when you're the one waiting to check out!). You know how it is....to be totally honest, in my mind, I was thinking....."Yooohooo! Quit talking! I need to go get Edith and I'm going to be late!" When it was my turn, she asked how I was, I said "Fine" and asked about her,not expecting much of an answer. Her response surprised me though....She said, "Not too good right now." Well, normally, cashiers don't say things like that, so WE started chatting and she started telling me how she has recently moved here from another state for a fresh start and just can't find a job in the field where she has a degree....Criminal Justice! Well, HELLO! I would think around here these days there would be NO trouble finding a job in that field (!!), but evidently she hasn't had any luck. I told her I would pray that she would find something soon. She said she appreciated that and she told me her name. We chatted another minute or so and I asked her if she attended church anywhere. She named a church and said she'd only been a few times because she's had to work, then she went on to say that she told her boss she would like to be off on Wednesdays and Sundays because she would like to attend church, but he keeps scheduling her because there aren't enough employees to cover the shifts. I could just see the disappointment and sadness in her eyes that things aren't working out for her like she had envisioned they would when she moved here. I didn't really know what to say to all that, but then it popped into my mind to tell her about this new women's ministry at my church that I mentioned here on my blog a couple of weeks ago. It came to mind, I know, because there are so many things to take advantage of on days of the week besides Wednesday and Sunday and possibly some things she can attend to meet people and get some sort of encouragement. I didn't have any with me right then, but in my car, I had some Women of Purpose brochures, so I left to get one of those to leave with her. I also left my name and phone number and the church's address because she asked. She sounded pretty interested, so who knows what may happen. I am going to keep my eyes and ears open though because I did get an honest sense that she would like to be involved somewhere.

The thing is that I NEVER go to that drug store I went to today. It's probably been a year or more since I've been in there, but when I left, I knew why I had stopped there. It was such a cool feeling. It felt good to know that I had offered her a positive opportunity for involvement and it felt good to know that I belong to a church that wants to reach out to our community. It felt good to let her know we have a women's ministry that offers more than Wednesday and Sunday involvement. I felt lucky that I had a brochure to share....AND it let me know that I always need to have a few of those brochures with me! You just never know.

Before I left, she mentioned that the guy in front of me had some connections with the police, court and legal system here and said he would see about helping her get in touch with some people who could maybe help her find a job in her field. She told him she didn't get off work until 10:00 and asked if that was too late to call. He said he needed to talk to her tonight because he's leaving in the morning to go out of town, so I'm going to be praying that they have a positive chat tonight and that he can help her get her foot in the door somewhere. I just can't help but to feel like something is going to work out for her.

And who knows, I may even see her at church or one of our women's ministry events one day...wouldn't that be cool?

Her name is Cheryl Bush and if you'd like to pray for her too, that would be super!