"Wow , where do I begin?!
"We had been praying at the changing of shifts for clients. . .and the Lord brought us one client, Ashley*, around 4pm. I recently visited Ashley in the Hendricks County jail. Several years ago at the Avon Center I had peer counseled her when she was strongly considering abortion, and she changed her mind and decided to keep the baby. Her child is now almost three years old. She was coming back today to meet with a volunteer to get help with signing up for the Hoosier Healthwise program.
"When Ashley was in the lobby today waiting, she had only flip flops, short sleeves and no jacket or coat. It took a gentleman volunteer out of all the females who were here to notice and ask if we could get her a coat.
It was evident that he was moved by her having nothing warm to wear in this weather.
"Janet*, one of our peer counselors, went directly into the peer counseling room and had Ashley try on her dockers. They fit, so Janet just gave them to Ashley. She gave her the shoes right off of her feet!
"The client cried when Janet gave her the shoes, and said, 'There are other people worse off than me.' It touched Ashley's heart that someone would give her shoes right off of her feet.
I believe we were all moved by this response!
"Another volunteer began to put some baby items together for Ashley, while the other two counselors went to a secondhand shop in the area to purchase her a coat, mittens, scarf, socks and a pair of tennis shoes with the money that Janet had given them. When they came back, they were looking at the coat and noticed that the lining was torn and hanging down. The two of them went to one of the little Hispanic clothing shops here in this plaza and asked if they had a needle and thread that they could use to sew this lining. A volunteer stitched the coat up, and in a few minutes was able to give the coat to Ashley. It fit perfectly and would go around her little belly. She was very grateful!
"What was even more of a blessing was watching the Lord work in all of the volunteers here. It was beautiful! Each person played a part in helping this little client.
To God be the glory for the things He has done!"
~ Machelle Montgomery, West Center director
