the latest

today was a loooong day at work... :) towards the end of the day, a few of us teamed up to complete the last remaining checkout rooms. those ones require the most work, so the more people that help, the sooner we all get to go home! amber (another campus crusade student) and i were working with two of the established women here, gloria and karen. gloria is funny; she likes to dance and tell jokes and really helped to keep us motivated in the homestretch. somehow she got to talking about her life, her testimony and her faith...let me tell you, this is one amazing woman! thirteen years ago, she was arrested for multiple counts of drug posession and use. fearing what would happen to her two kids if she was convicted for all of these charges, she prayed to God, promising her life to Him if He could get her through it. when she went to court, the judge offered her so much grace; he dropped all but one of the charges and sentenced her to 6 months rehab and probation instead of the long prison sentence she could have easily received. since then, she has been completely sober, has not relapsed at all, and loves the Lord with all of her heart. she's gone to college to earn a degree in nursing and is currently working on another degree in counseling with an emphasis on drug rehabilitation. her desire is to work for a christian counseling office, empathetically using her own life experience to help people overcome their drug addictions and come to know the Lord. what a story! her opening up to us was really encouraging; it even allowed karen to share a little bit about her own story. she shared with us that she spent time in prison, the worst time of her life. i'm hoping to follow up on a deeper level with her next time we're paired up to clean!