My Journey Starts

I’m a retired ESL teacher who received a call to disciple women. It was a dramatic calling involving a young woman in a red teddy on my front lawn late at night. I was alone in my new home (less than a month after moving in). I think I was working on lesson plans. My dog started barking at a young woman who was crying and wandering around my yard. Worldly wisdom said to call the police. But I felt a push to go out and talk to her. It was very direct – God usually doesn’t speak to me that directly. So I went out to see what was wrong.

The first thing I did was give her a sweater and ask her to sit down. She was high. She was lost. She had no phone. She asked if she could borrow mine to call the people she had wandered away from. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t think that calling the people who had let her wander away was a wise idea. So I asked her for her mom’s number. I saw the hesitation, but I knew that it would be better for her to call her mom than the people she was with…and it was. You see, Mom had the same area code for her phone as I did, so she picked up, and there had been a break in the relationship. She and her mom had a good talk, and her mom called someone safe to pick her up. I don’t know the final outcome of all of this, but I do know I did the right thing. Both her mom and the friend thanked me.

This friend hugged me, then asked why I didn’t call the police. I told her, ” I saw my daughter in the front yard alone and scared. I couldn’t call the police on her.” The friend thanked me again with tears in her eyes, and they left. I sat down at my dining room table, and heard in the same voice that told me to help this girl, “Pastor my daughters.” I knew He meant it in the sense of shepherding, discipling, and walking them through difficult times. I said yes, and although the road has not been as clear or as easy as that first night, it has, however, been rich and transformative. I am grateful for the call.