Thursday, April 19, 2018

April 19, 2018

Greetings My Friend,

I focus a whole lot on the woman at the well, in the Bible. Jesus stopped to rest while the disciple's went into town to get food. A woman comes to the well at a time when most women did not because she was not accepted in the community do to the fact she was married 5 times, then living outside of marriage with a man. This tender act of Jesus to this woman warms my heart often as I think on it. I always feel like I was much like the woman at the well, unwanted, not of much use. After we moved to Virginia, Junior saw a young man walking down the train track day after day. Junior felt led by the Lord he was supposed to mentor him, teach him how to work so he could go get a job. One day the young man Jeremiah's mother stopped by our house to check on him. Jeremiah told his mother Brenda to visit me while he finished what he was doing, to talk woman talk. That was the start of our friendship. Right off I discovered we both knew the pain of abuse, struggled to get away from the craziness of our life. I shared my story, she shared hers, then Brenda began to hang out with me. I was newly retired, could hardly move off of the couch, stay awake so Brenda watched me fight back to a functioning life again. As I learned how to do housework, do a little each day instead of blocking out time to keep the house up, I had to move slower, break my work down into manageable time frames. Brenda watched me, I shared what I knew, mostly though it seemed to fall on deaf ears. After Jeremiah worked with Junior a couple of years, we told him we could no longer afford to pay him. After a couple of false starts, Jeremiah indeed found a job as an over the road truck driving job. He has been working for 5 years now, Brenda started to break away from us, then she found she could not stay away so we have been hanging out with both Junior and I for nine years. Brenda's lifestyle is not one I have ever known, she appears to be backwards yet I can hear a very intelligent woman as well. We have both grown learning to love each other, understanding the pain of abuse. After all these years, I almost felt she was never going to open her heart fully to Jesus, was going to stay in her rut. Finally, she had cancer, did not have a good prognosis, then opened her heart to fully accept Jesus as her Savior. I struggled to see how hard she was trying because her bipolar roller coaster life blinded me. After one particularly hard day my body started to spasm, Brenda saw it, realized how hard she affects people. After that Brenda went to a health fair, talked with someone who said the medications she was on was not doing anything for her. Brenda went to work at getting the new medication and for a few weeks now she is much more stable, rational to talk to. Each time I wanted to let go, walk away from her God kept telling me I was not finished with being her friend. Yesterday, Brenda called me was rational for the 3rd, 4th time, was making well thought out decisions. I saw the woman at the well was much like Brenda, I thanked God for making me to stick with this huge undertaking. I learned again that we can't assume someone from another road of life is never going to come to the Lord. God placed me in Brenda's life, to be a friend, because He knew my friend would one day turn to Jesus and He wanted me to be the one to walk beside her. Today I am grateful God would not let me walk away from my friend, I also know as low as I felt much like the woman at the well, that there are others who need to meet Jesus. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet

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