We met Leslie through her best friend. He would come out to talk with us most of the days we stopped by to drop off lunches. Leslie would come out occasionally. I had a chance to connect well with her one day when she shared that she had two teenage daughters living less than 20 miles away, yet she did not want them to visit her at the motel because it wasn’t safe. She was also embarrassed and shameful about her housing and lifestyle. As the weeks and months passed, we saw less and less of Leslie. When we did see her, she looked thinner, paler, and glassy eyed. One saturday in the spring, she came out to talk when we knocked on her door. Her boyfriend had left, she had no money, and was totally unsure of where she would go or what she would do. She asked if we could bring her a tent the next time we came by. Four days later, we had the tent and other supplies, but Leslie was gone. About two weeks later, she contacted me. She had gone from bad to worse in terms of shelter, she needed to get out of where she was living right away, and she was bone weary tired. Not only tired, but ready to address more than her housing crisis. She reached out for guidance on getting clean. Heroine and alcohol were what she lived for. She was 43 years old and had been using since she was 25 years old. We worked together to find a rehab. Leslie was all in.

The challenges and old demons were great and fierce, but she hung in there. Her love for her girls, her weariness, and her desire to seek God helped her through the hardest of times. How special it was to receive a phone call from her recently saying ‘thank you!, I’m clean, it feels so good, I’m scared but I’m sticking this out!’ I can’t think of anyone we serve that cannot relate to Jesus’ words in Matthew 11:28-30: ‘Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.’ Trying to survive without shelter or a car, with or without a job, with physical or mental challenges – Life can spiral out of control so very quickly. We live in a society that is experiencing more and more resistance to the love and hope and peace that Jesus offers to us all. As we at Revive Us Ministries have the opportunity to meet the brokenhearted in challenging places, we do not only offer a bag of food… We look into their eyes We ask them their names We listen and listen and listen We care We love And we pray. And they are so thankful Tears are not uncommon And we are blessed by those we set out to bless