It will never happen to me....

"I never thought it would happen to me but hey, God's got me! I know everything I went through is for a reason.
There is something big He wants me to do. I'm not sure what
it is yet but I'm most certainly not done."
Jane

There is something extra special about those words when you hear them from a woman who has endured extreme hardship. I titled this newsletter 'It will never happen to me' because I bet almost every one of you cannot imagine losing everything and becoming homeless. Well friends, neither could Jane. A bit of her story is below and I hope after reading it you will remember that we are all on the same journey and just one dip in the road can knock you completely into a different lane.

Pace e bene!
Tracy L. Geivett, Chaplain/Executive Director

News from the Street!

Jane is from California. We met her on Wednesday when she visited the Chaplaincy to get assistance with obtaining her Arizona state ID. Jane and I began chatting about how she ended up in Arizona. I asked her how long she had been here and she said only 2 days. She then described to me the most astonishing, heart-breaking chain of events that I have heard in a long time and believe me I have heard much.

Until about 8 months ago Jane lived in a nice house in California, drove a nice car, and had a decent job.

But a diabetic coma changed her life drastically. It became that dip in the road that sent her life into turmoil.

 A friend arrived at her house one day to find her laying on the floor near death. After spending 6 weeks recovering in the hospital, she spent nearly 5 more months in a nursing home for further rehabilitation. During this time she lost her house, her car, and her job. She found herself homeless. The shelters in the city were full and after a few nights of sleeping on the street she used the money she had left to take the Greyhound bus to Phoenix, Arizona. Thinking ahead she planned a stop in Riverside County to pick up a certified copy of her birth certificate. As I sat there in utter disbelief, I had to tell her that she needed more than her birth certificate to get Arizona state ID; but her amazing decision to stop in Riverside saved her from a 6 week wait!

I peeked in our stash of change and found I had enough to buy her a daily fare bus ticket. I slid it into the envelope with the check for MVD. I explained that she actually had 3 different stops and the MVD would be her last one. She needed to go to the social security office to get a printout showing her social security number did indeed belong to her. She then needed to hop on the bus and head to the local IRS office where she was to pick up a copy of her latest W-2. She then needed to hop back on the bus, come back to the shelter and go to MVD in the morning. About 3 hours later she knocked on my door and asked if I needed to see the documents she picked up. I smiled at her tenacity and her admirable, awesome ability to have such a positive attitude in the face of such daunting obstacles. After being assured she had what she needed for the next day, she went off to get cleaned up so she could attend the Lodestar Day Resource Center campus orientation to learn of the other services available to help her.

I'm positive we won't see Jane around here for long. She's got a check list of goals and is marking them off one by one. Not to mention it is quite obvious that just like she said......

God has something big for her to do.

Be blessed and be kind.