God answers prayers!

Prayer is extremely important to me. I think the most important prayer I pray is one of gratitude. I don't seem to be able to stop thanking God for all the blessings He brings to my life. And, He answers prayers in the most powerful ways. Good--no, great--things always come from His handiwork.

Volunteers and the staff at our center are of utmost importance to the work that is done there. Recently, a new executive director called to ask my advice on how to keep volunteers engaged. I told her that I have always thought a large part of my job was to nurture and protect volunteers. I think that has paid off because people have come and stayed for years and years. There is very little turnover.

The first thing I always do is thank every volunteer as they are leaving the center. I am so very grateful for their presence and their willingness to share their talents and time there. They bring gifts that are uniquely theirs and extremely useful for our clients' benefit and they make our organization much stronger as a result. I told my cohort that I take an interest in their lives because I love them and want to know how they are doing. I try to follow up with them about something they told me the next time I see them. Volunteers like to be busy and, blessedly, at our center that is rarely a problem! There are always baby clothes to sort, things to organize, diapers to bag, etc. Special projects come up quite a lot, too.

One thing I've noticed is that, sometimes, the center can become a place of healing for volunteers. A few weeks ago, a woman came in, expressing interest in counseling, telling me she had just graduated with an RN degree and was looking for work. She seemed to have a passion for life. I explained that she would have to go to the TLC training before she could counsel and then she'd have to spend 16 hours observing sessions at the center. She started a couple weeks later and, boy, did she come in like gangbusters! Every volunteer in her wake came to me, expressing how irritated he or she was by her aggressive tactics. I'd never had anything quite like this before! It all came to a head one day when the client services advocate told me her spirit was riled by her presence. I suggested we pray about it. As we did, the thought came into my head that the new volunteer had had an abortion. I wondered what I was supposed to do with that thought! It didn't take long to discover what the answer to THAT was: nothing. I was to let God work and I was to get out of His way. The first thing that happened was she confided in the client services advocate that she'd had an abortion several years ago and she had never dealt with it. Bingo! When the advocate told me, it occurred to me that I must ask her to fill out the volunteer form required by the board of directors. On it was the question "Have you had any experience with abortion?". I wondered how she would answer it. If she answered no, she'd be lying to me. If she answered yes, it would be my in to get her to talk about it. She answered yes and so I asked her to tell me about her experience. It was then that her story came out in a flood of words. It appeared she had many emotional challenges. I told her that I could not allow her to counsel at the center because it was against TLC's policy. Her counseling could cause damage to herself and to our clients, given where she was about her own abortion right now. I told her I wasn't shutting the door to her ever counseling but it was required that she attend a program such as Conquerors or Rachel's Vineyard and come to a healing about her abortion first. I encouraged her to seek individual counseling, too. She got quiet for a bit and told me that, as she looked around at the things I had in my office (i.e. my crucifix, the rotating photos on my computer screen of my grandchildren), she now understood why she'd been called to the center. It was because we were a people of prayer and she knew that I would pray for her. She said it was time for her to deal with her abortion. She said she couldn't stuff it down any longer. It didn't go away no matter how hard she tried to hide it from herself. The next day, she sent me a correspondence she'd had with a Conquerors coordinator about beginning the program. She really was serious about working on this!

I learned a lot that day. One thing that amazed me was the swiftness in which God had answered our prayers regarding this matter. Another was the realization that I did not have the wisdom God imparted within me. It truly was a gift from Him! Also, I learned that I was only one small part of this whole situation. The client advocate had really gotten the ball rolling with her ability to get people to talk to her about very intimate things. I was humbled, as well as in awe of how God had worked. A dear friend of God's had been steered in a direction where healing could take place for her. And, we had all taken part in, and had been privy to, God's way of doing things. Peace had been restored! I marveled at how God protects our center so that good work can continue to be done there.

I am very blessed to be able to work in a place where God is present in such real and beautiful ways!