June, again.

I met June ("just like the month") in January. She was cold and her ankle was hurt. After a stop by Taco Bell we drove to her friend's place, but no one was home. We ended up parting ways at an old gas station in a sketchy area. I gave her the sleeping bag I kept in my trunk, but I'm sure it couldn't keep out all the cold that night. I worried about June. She told me her daughter had died the previous year and it really messed her up, but she was trying to do good and pray to God.

A few months later my friend called and said he, too, had met June. He ran into her on the other side of town, where she had been staying with her mother she said. She asked him for a ride to her job at a grocery store closer to my neighborhood. I rejoiced for June.

Tonight, a group of us were gathered outside Epoch's new location, and I ran into June again. She needed help getting a place to stay and some clothes to wear to work (she was part time at the grocery store still). It takes much longer to walk to my apartment from there than it does to ride I discovered, but we walked back together. I gave her some clothes and toiletries and a bag to carry them in, then dropped her off at a kind of halfway house near her work. We talked a bit before I dropped her off; she said her mother was out of town. She's hoping to start work at Sonic on the 18th when the kids go back to school. She said she's be clean for a month, and told me how horrible going through withdrawal was. I told her I had been praying for her since we met in January, and I would keep praying for her if she'd pray for me too. We talked about how easy it was to believe Satan's lies and how important reading the Bible is. I prayed for her before she got out of the car, and for myself too, that we'd be strong against the lies and remember the truth about God's love.

On my way home I was sad, then I was mad. I was sad because she'd seemed like she'd gotten things together when my friend met her. I was mad that I couldn't make everything ok. I asked God why...why June, why she couldn't be given a break.

But tonight isn't the time to think about all that. Tonight is the time to see a need and try to meet it. Some people will criticize me for bringing her to my apartment, others with say I shouldn't have driven her anywhere...Because I am imperfect, my help will be imperfect, but I pray that the more I seek God, the more clearly I will see the right ways to do these things. I can't wait until I have all the answers or a fail-proof 3 step plan though, because the needs are here now.

Somebody's Baby
Jon Foreman

She yells, 'if you were homeless,
Sure as hell you'd be drunk
Or high or trying to get there
Or begging for junk
When people don't want you
They just throw you money for beer'

Her name was November
She went by Autumn or Fall
It was seven long years past
Since the Autumn when all
Of her nightmares grew fingers
And all of her dreams grew a tear

She's somebody's baby
Somebody's baby girl
She's somebody's baby
Somebody's baby girl
And she's somebody's baby still

She screams, 'well, if you never
Gone it alone
Well then go ahead, you better
Throw the first stone
You got one lonely stoner
Waiting to bring to her knees'

She dreams about heaven
Remembering hell
As a nightmare she visits
And knows all too well
Every now and again when she's sober
She brushes her teeth

Today was her birthday
Strangely enough
When the cops found her body
At the foot of the bluffs
This morning's anonymous call
Tipped off the police

They got her ID
From her dental remains
The same fillings intact
The same nicotine stains
The birth and the death were both over
With no one to grieve