It's been 8 months since I was interning at Rising Hope for my second summer... eight months since I last saw this friend who really touched my heart and impacted my life...
It's funny how spending two short summers somewhere can affect your life forever. At Rising Hope - home to the least, the lost, the lonely, the left-out - I became friends and family to some people who have eternally touched my heart, and whom I will always remember.
One of these people in particular, I really clicked with in June 2009 when I first came to Rising Hope... you can read a little about her in my posts: "love for the lost" and "life's lows." But these short paragraphs skimming over her life do little justice to the person I befriended. I know that many people knew her and loved her so much more than I, but I feel compelled to remember her in a more complete way...
This friend of mine was an artist. She was always sketching, the ones that I have in my possession are of horses, but she could draw anything! One of my favorite pieces was a picture of Christ, which hangs in the entry way of her church - Rising Hope.
She was also a master of wit. She was just absolutely hysterical and so much fun to be around. I remember one day we were eating lunch together. We began to have the silliest conversation about food. I don't know where it came from or why (maybe lunch wasn't ideal that day). But we were constructing the most intricate, detestable sandwich you can imagine, and practically falling out of our seats laughing with tears streaming down our faces. Sure it was childish and pointless, sure anyone listening to us would probably have thought we were out of it... But it was the kind of memory that sticks with you forever. Two friends enjoying laughter, lunch and conversation - in that moment we weren't from different worlds. In that moment she wasn't "a homeless person" and I wasn't "a college student with my whole future ahead of me," we were friends.
At the Family Fun Fair that Rising Hope puts on every year, I remember seeing her in her element. There was an arts and crafts table set up for the kids to come and draw pictures and do crafts, this was where she helped. I still have the artwork she made that day... but more lasting than those pictures was the joy in her face as she shared with kids the joy of artistic creation. In just an afternoon she shared her passion and talent with dozens of children, brightening up their day, exposing them to creativity and imagination.
I hold many memories from those two summers of this wonderful friend of mine, like these. Alongside of them are some very troubling, disheartening images of a woman struggling with addiction. But her addiction isn't who she was, and I don't want that to be what I hold onto. Her addiction is a thing of this earth - and she has departed from it, into an abundant life where she can eternally live out her creativity, imagination, and humor alongside of the God who created her and loves her.
Amen Bekah! Due to so many factors in one's life She, my sister who was but 44 years old... became this quote homeless person, but as Christ himself said as you help these so called no ones, just ignored and abandoned so you help me. May God bless your soul! She was so deeply loved she just could not except it. Now she knows! Praise God Almighty~ thank you and bless you
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