Recap (Phyllis and Taylor)

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!