December 2016 Newsletter

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Job Landed With First Application

The ink was barely dry on Liz’s resume. While still in jail, she thought about the various restaurants where she would like to work. One of them stood out as a best choice. Years earlier, she had received two small scholarships to attend a culinary arts college. After completing just one term, she was pulled away by partying with friends. She had a lack of boundaries. It was time to get her life back on track, even back to her career choice of being a chef. But her resume had a lot of holes in it, missing periods of time and lacking longevity at places. Determined, Liz walked out of the employment office, resume in hand, right to the one restaurant that she wanted to work. The owner/manager told her to return at 2pm. Liz said, “I came back at ten minutes ‘til. I was hired on the spot. I told him that I am working on being clean (from drugs) and on getting my son back.”

Our Samaritan Inn was home now, as much as she was here. She worked so many overtime hours, as if making up for lost time. There was a new sense of purpose and direction. She was working for herself and her son, no longer concerned about acceptance of fleeting friends or even younger, overachieving siblings. She has a learning disability that was never given a specific name. It was explained to her, “Like a dresser drawer – I know which drawer the answer is in, but will go through every other possible drawer for the answer, because I do not believe in myself.” That low self-esteem carried over into abusive relationships. She would stay with a boyfriend, she said, “Even if it was unhealthy. There was mental, drug, physical abuse. I did not leave, because I felt like I was at his level. I didn’t value myself, but I enjoyed the attention. I burned bridges with my mom and dad.” Finally in July, there was a turn around. She had been living for a short while in a tent in the woods. She thought, “I don’t want to live like this anymore. I want to get clean and get my life back in order. I turned myself in. A couple of people in jail talked about Samaritan Inn.” She had only been in a shelter once before, ten years ago for a brief time.

“That first night in chapel, I think God was just grabbing me. Those songs just touched my heart. It was like God said you’re home, you’re back; because, I had been gone so long. I was praying, reading the Bible, opening my heart,” Liz recalled. In October, she was baptized at a local church and rededicated her life to the Lord. She remembered the way of her youth, praying every night before dinner and bed. She said, “I don’t have to have bad friends, just to have friends. I have more confidence. Without God in my life, I crumbled apart. With God, I start to find myself. I am working on my new identity, molding myself, turning myself back to God, learning who I am. People can trust me now. I am a good worker. My family is starting to talk to me again. The source of my new improved self is walking with the Lord. He is right there to assist me.”

Liz is now working on getting her five-year- old son back and her living arrangement here will facilitate that. She concluded by saying, “I don’t know where I would be without you guys and Samaritan Inn.”