"God has sent you to me"

These are the words we heard from Victoria while Alicia was helping to clean her wound on her leg.

We first met Victoria about 6 months ago.   I don't think I've ever met a more bitter and angry person.  She told us that she didn't believe in God since her husband, mother, and sister all died within a few months of each other.  She has been living on the streets, drinking rubbing alcohol for a while.  She's so hardened.

We kept running into Victoria and even sang "Happy Birthday" to her on her birthday a few weeks ago while we were delivering soup.  She smiled!  It was good to see.

Victoria fell and hurt her leg badly about 2 weeks ago. She went to the hospital and got some stitches put in, but, she has been fighting a horrible infection for that long.  Her leg was in bad shape.  We've been going 2 times a day to the area where she lives (basically a dirt pile) to clean it, bandage it, and give her antibiotics.  While we've been doing that, we've been seeing her soften.  She greets us with a smile.  She tells us thank you.

One evening while Alicia was cleaning it and putting on a new bandage, she said to Alicia, "I know now that God is real because He has sent you to me to take care of me."  It made us all choke up to hear her say that.  It was such a big step!

Mark and I went today to talk with her son--who is a doctor--to find out if he can make sure that there isn't more that needs to be done with her leg.  She wants to get off the street and deal with her alcoholism.  We told him that there is a program for her, but, she needs to be willing to do it for one year.  He's going to talk with her today.  Pray that she takes advantage of it!