Back in the spring of
2014 one of our students,
Phyllis, who had given birth
to a baby girl named Taylor
while at MITS, decided it
was in her best interest to
run away from MITS.
There were a couple of different
factors that led to
this decision (which we won’t
talk about here),
many of which
come from mitigating
circumstances
from living
on the streets.
Suffice to say,
many of us at
MITS were terribly
disappointed with
Phyllis’ decision
for the ramifications
it would have
on her life and on
her baby’s life. It
broke our heart!
Despite our best
efforts and best
intentions to
love and encourage Phyllis,
we just could not convince
her to stay at MITS. Our initial thoughts about
this situation were that
Phyllis was a lost
cause. That eventually
we would find
her on the streets
again cold, hungry,
high from drugs
and regretting the
choice that she
made. The worst of
this decision was again that
we would also find baby
Taylor in worse shape than
her mother, hurting because
of the choices of her
mother. We figured it would
only be a matter of time
before my worst fears were
realized and Phyllis would
ask to come back even
though she knew we would
not be able to do that.
Sure enough, months
later we found Phyllis back
on the street and she was
definitely not doing as well
as we would have liked.
We encouraged her to
come to our mother’s program
and to come to
church at Eastleigh on Sunday.
We especially started
to encourage her when we
found out that her MITS
sponsor from the states
(Kori) would be coming for
another visit in December.
Right before Kori arrived in
December we saw Phyllis at
the Eastleigh center and
told her to come to all the
programs because Kori
would be coming and
wanted to see her.
Well sure enough after Kori arrived
we got to visit Phyllis and
Taylor on the streets and they
seemed OK. They came back to
the center with us and Kori got
more time to visit and encourage
Phyllis. Our thoughts though were
that after Kori returns back to the
states, Phyllis will return back to
the struggles of the streets.
A few weeks later we were worshiping
at the Eastleigh church
and I looked up and noticed Phyllis
and Taylor sitting in the front row. We watched for awhile and couldn't
help but smile as we watched Phyllis
singing and praising God as we
worshiped.
This just reminded me of one
thing that we have found to be true
in our life . . . God is never
through writing our stories! To us, Phyllis’ story was done. Her
poor choice had led her back to
the streets, to a life of poverty addiction and hopelessness. But
to God, every choice can be redeemed.
Everything that happens
God can use for a greater purpose
and to His glory. W don’t know
where Phyllis’ story will go but we pray that wherever it leads, God
will guide her every step of the
way.
We never understood Phyllis’ decision
and still don’t. And I (and
the rest of our staff) also would
never condone our street kids in
making the same decision she did. But,we are reminded that although
Phyllis' decision was terrible . . .
God can use it for good purposes
to achieve His will in hers and others
lives.
Please pray with us that God will protect Phyllis and
Taylor while they live on the
streets and that He will guide their
every step. Also pray that God
will give me (us) the ability to see
through our (and others)
mistakes and
trust that
God can still
use me (us)
for His glory!
