"In the faces of men and women I see God."- Walt Whitman

Last week, I had the opportunity to go to a clinical site for my nursing psych class in Knoxville. It was a place called the Serenity Shelter. This program is apart of the Knoxville Area Rescue Ministries, and it is a house that provides a place to live for homeless, battered, or women in need. I had gotten lost on the way there, so I was frustrated and nervous about coming in late to a place I had never been before. Ironically, I was teaching to the women that day about anxiety. Funny how God gives us a perfect example of what we are going to teach other people about. Most of the time when I have clinical, my main goal is to complete the school work I needed to get done while I am there. However, this day, I got more than school work accomplished, I found a calling and desire of my heart. These women were brought into Serenity Shelter at the lowest point in their life, but the women that ran the program had an amazing love for these damaged women that they didn't even know. One of the main goals at Serenity Shelter is that every woman leave there knowing Christ, and having a hope for the future. Wow, what an inspiration!

On that particular day I was there, most of the women had been in the program for almost a whole year. And, most of them had come to know Christ and had a hunger for him like none I had ever seen! In my teaching for that day about anxiety I had added in a some bible verses to tell them about. (Which is not normally something I do for clinical teaching- but God is bigger than nursing school so he won the battle in my mind that day.) As I was reading them the verses they all asked me to stop and go back and say them slower so they could write them down. They also all had their bibles there and many of them highlighted the verses in their bibles.

As they were highlighting and writing down, it reminded me of middle school girls at a church camp. Middle School girls often do this type of thing and they ask lots of questions because they are learning about God's word, and they are interested in what Christ has to teach us, as well as following the rules. And these women had all of these behaviors.

AND, as I shared with them and talked to them, listened to their stories, and watched them hungering after God's word, my heart was more satisfied and excited than ever. I realized through this experience, that God was calling my heart to work with women. I'm not sure exactly how working with women will end up playing out, but I know that God created my heart to be satisfied there!

Never forget, that God can, and will, use EVERY experience in our life, to make the end product of who he sees us to be, come to life!

I have posted a video highlighting Cynthia Russell of Knoxville, TN; she is one of the coordinators of the Serenity Shelter. She is such an insipiration and a wonderful example of God's love even for, "the least of these."