Jeryl's life: So sad.

"With much weight on my heart I am writing this note...

I will back up a week. Last Tuesday we traveled into Manhattan to serve at Tompkins Square Park as usual. On our way in we were praying for the day and for our friends that we usually see there--for God to do a mighty work in their hearts. One of the girls on staff felt specifically led to pray for God's grace.. so she mentioned grace several times in her prayer as led by Holy Spirit.

We arrived and that day it was SO COLD outside. We were giving away coats and socks/gloves/scarves/hats/etc when I a woman that we have never seen before came to the truck. She was shivering so badly that she couldn't keep her hands/body from shaking. She was cold to the bone.. and much more it seemed.

Carol, who had prayed for grace on the way in, went over to talk with her. She gave her a jacket, we gave her hot soup, and offered to help in whatever way we could. Nearing the end of our time there, my friend Stanley (who has been homeless at times but has had an apartment now for the past few years) came and took her to stay with him for a few days. Her name was Grace.

Yesterday we were in Tompkins again when we found out that Grace had froze to death while sleeping on a cardboard box in the park just a couple days earlier. One of the guys that serve with us had read an article in the Daily News and came across that section, cut it out, and asked us if we knew her. We realized that this was the same woman we had ministered to just a week earlier. The article said that she had a 9 year old son and that she was a divorced victim of domestic abuse who struggled with alcoholism.

Please be praying for her son and her family and for those that knew her....

I sat in the truck serving food yesterday with a heavy heart... these things should never happen... could we have done more, Father?

I felt the need to write this to bring an awareness to you that this is real stuff that happens even in America....how much more we need to reach out to those around us in need... we never know how much time they have left. Oh my heart.

Father -- Compel us with your love."

- written by a friend of mine at Street LIFE Ministries