Stop at a gas station I go into about once a month or so. The girl that works nights is always friendly and just has a light about her. Tonight I noticed she looked to have been crying and down.

Long story short I spent 3 hrs after working 16hrs talking with her. She is in a tough spot. Guy uses prevented Christianity, among other things to beat her down mentally an if im guess physically also but she would not say much being ashamed. She has a 6 year old daughter no vehicle in her name and is kind of stuck she feels .
He took all her cash after blowing his on pot. Now she is broke and doesn't have the money for her daughter new close she was going to take her to get Wensday. She needs to change her situation and knows it but without the means and is scared is my take on it.


During the time I spoke with her she had a bad taste in her mouth for church. I gently explained a few things giving examples. Let her know God loves her and she is never alone, she has worth and value beyond her comprehension. Hopefully some of it sunk in just a little and will get her thinking. She seemed receptive but years of abuse will take a lot of time to get over.

She could use prayers that doors will opened and she will gain her self confidence and courage to improve her situation. Her name is Bethany I think her name tag said.

I will probably stop in a litle more often to check on her and her progress and I look forward to watching how God gets into action and changes her life and pray she walks through the open door.. It's going to get rough and scary for her before it gets better.

Prayers sent for Bethany and her child.

Good on you PF for trying to help. Hopefully things will improve for her.

Hopefully she will seethat things will get better with God.

Prayers

Good work. You may want to offer her your wife's or another godly woman's phone number who she can call for support and mentorship.

Prayers for Bethany. I have seen this kind of thing too often. Prayers that she gets clear of this pothead.

Good for you. You being perceptive of her mood and emotions that she was wearing may well help to get her back on track. This sort of thing can play out in many ways. I trust it will be a positive outcome. Thoughts and prayers for better times.

Very good idea. One in her area may be better since we are over 100 miles away but since I don't know any beside my mother within 30 min of her my wife will have to work. Mom can be over bearing pushy and opinionated. I believe that young girl would shut down say what she think is expected of her to say and gain nothing in that situation. My wife would be a little better but still may give the impression of being judgmental to a younger girl in such a fragile and venerable state. It would definitely be worth a try. I didn't feel proper giving her my # but a rightly thinking woman is a great idea.

I need to call and speak with the pastor at my wife's grandmother's who died church. They have expository preaching, and I have been runnin across a lot of people recently that are lost and seeking and I need a good rightly preaching local church to send them to/ invite them to go to with me when I'm in the area. They would probably feel more welcome and comfortable having someone familiar going in with them making introductions their first time or two there. That reminds me there is a fellow I need to call and check on.

Theres a lot of folks out there in trubble. I saw a guy in the local liquor store buying 2 oz bottles of liquor with coins. Pickup was loaded like they were moving. Oklahoma license plates. Tough times ahead for them for sure.

It honestly hurt me seeing these people struggling. Clawing trying to get on the right path but not knowing the way.

A fellow I was talking with last month was a contractor at work and at rock bottom emotionally. Right where he needed to be to realize he needed to turn to Christ. He said " you know what you're saying makes a lot of sense. I have been trying everything else I can think of and none of its worked". I'm hopeful that was another spark lighting a forest fire for God.

God works. I'm feel so inadequate in these situations yet I asked for God to use me and almost instantly these opportunities to speak with hurting lost people just started appearing seemingly out of nowhere. It has nothing to do with me or what I can do because I an completely inadequate for the task. But God is up to it and can use me to help these folks. A lot of them would probably be intimidated with a more professional polished less raw person to speak to at first.

You did a good thing . Might just have changed her and her daughters life.

You never know when God wants to use you. Made me tear up thinking about it.

Ive been in same situation ..i feel totally inadequite and yet God sets them in my path. Brother God can use anybody,and he does it in perfect time! Amen!

we have a program here in Green county I used to cook for , Family Promise , it may be exactly what she needs.

you spend time in churches as that is what they use to house you and to feed you but it doesn't push religion on them.

they have dedicated counselors who understand the legal system , local resources and have a lot of community connections.

they do a lot of financial counseling , life counseling , she has a job but they can help with child care , rides , finding a car , possibly other employment , it is intended to keep families who are or are at great danger of becoming homeless from ending up divided in shelters.

mostly it ends up being young women often just ejected from the foster care system, and mothers with kids. they do allow men if it is a family with kids. the number of men I saw was very limited.

If they work the program it helps them get financially stable and in to long term stable housing.

Green county is small enough and rural enough that we have no shelters and no large cities , the goal was to not end up sending families off to cities whit bigger issues and lots of homelessness.
and as far as I know it has worked well.

you might look into if there is anything in that area similar.

Greencounty where would I start to look for such a program? It's not a situation or area I'm familiar with. Other than mom doing free hair cuts at the shelter several times a year, free back to school cuts for low income kids, and serving the homeless Thanksgiving and or x mass my experience is very limited with programs.
By the time I was involved with programs the kids were allready In foster care and being droped off on our door step. 4 of those kids a family group mom adopted.

https://familypromise.org/contact/
try the main organization contact see what is available in the area she is in

many counties here have family promise , they charter by city , county or area.

My church in Waukesha County also works with family promise, but I have not participated in anything.

Nothing on their map within 2hrs unfortunately.

they may know of some other in the area , otherwise check local pastors see if they know of anything.
there may be some other organization in that area not linked to family promise.

it is a good program a friend of mine was a councilor with the program when it first started up in Green county and the church we attended hosted on a 8 week rotation although I have cooked in a few churches when they needed a fill in.

it has been a few years , I got really busy for a while I was at a meeting for something 3-4 nights a week and then covid happened

in our attempt to keep post covid sanity I try not to have more than 1-2 meetings a week now in addition to work.

maybe see if you can at least donate food to your church when they host , it does take some screening and whatnot to be a host , cooks had some screening but I don't recall what is was I never did the overnight stay just filled in to 10pm a few times so someone else could do the overnight , I go through so many background checks and youth safety trainings with different organizations I can't remember what it was years back.

Have your Pastor talk to her