Testimony of a Homeless Woman

“Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is

the most terrible kind of poverty”—Mother

Teresa.

This quote from Mother Teresa really came home to me and entered my

heart one day at the Salvation Army/Crossroads

Homeless Shelter board meeting, where I was

serving as vice-president. We had invited a

homeless woman, a young lady with no family

and no place to live, to come to our board

meeting and to share her story with the board members.

We felt this would be helpful to us in our

ministry of outreach to the homeless—to

develop in us a better understanding of their

plight and the issues of their situation. Also, we

wanted to know how she felt, what it felt like to

be homeless.

 It was a very moving experience, and when she

told us how hard it was to not have an identity,

to be no one because she didn’t have a home or

family and therefore she did not exist—well,

that broke my heart. I shall never forget it.

Never forget her. How my heart ached for her.

I paused right after the meeting and offered a

prayer of thanks that I had never really been

lonely in my life. And I prayed for that young

woman, that she would understand and feel how

much we cared for her, that she was somebody

important to us who we wanted to love and provide for.

I learned a lesson of empathy and compassion that day, and

I will remember her prayerfully each time I see a

homeless person.

Now I kneel and pray every night for the homeless and the refugees

of the world, all 60 million of them. May God bless and care

for each one I pray in Jesus' name, amen.