Despair in Brownsville

Owning and managing a small business in Brownsville (our rental properties) is more ministry than business. That was by intent, but this shift manifested itself in ways that was never anticipated. I have encountered drug use, drug dealers, squatters, altercations, trespassers, thieves, and vandals. I’ve fixed furnaces, waded through sewage and cleaned toilets. I’ve lost my temper, lost sleep and shed tears… not over the physical damage, the unpredictable interruptions or the financial loss.

Helping folks with one of the most basic of necessities in their time of need puts you in a vulnerable position. Compassion breeds vulnerability. Vulnerability can be gut wrenching. There was no greater time of this gut wrenching experience when I went to visit “Holly.”

We decided to help Holly in her time of need. She was getting her feet back on the ground with a new job and wanted to provide a better life for herself and her young children. She knew she had to leave the environment she was in.

She moved in and was a model tenant for several months. Then her boyfriend was released from prison and moved in with his “extended family.” To put it bluntly, all hell broke loose.

I increased my visits to the property out of concern for the physical property, the safety of the tenants as well as the safety of my family. There were times when Holly was afraid… or ashamed to talk to me. Her boyfriend would beat her and she would wear the marks of those encounters for days.

This gut wrenching experience occurred on one of those visits. Holly came outside and closed the door to keep her children from hearing the conversation. She told me that she would be unable to pay this months rent. I told her we could work something out and asked if everything was OK. She said, “I don’t know why I’m telling you this, but I had to use my rent money to pay for an abortion.”

All I could say was “I’m so sorry.”

I don’t know if you have ever felt or seen despair… the absolute absence of hope. I saw the depths of despair that day in a way I pray no one ever must see or experience. Holly was so helpless and hopeless in her relationships, her finances, and her future she could not comprehend a new child in that same despair.

But she knew it was wrong and she grieved. Hopelessness is not a covering for sin; it does not erase our moral being. For all the rhetoric about choice and life; there was no doubt that it was an unborn child that lived within her womb, not a choice.

I can tell you with certainty that a government that claims to serve the common good, and a politician that is a harbinger for hope and change must be the voice for the most helpless of our country… the unborn child.

I can tell you with certainty that a government and that claims to serve the common good, and a politician that is a harbinger for hope and change must serve the most hopeless and vulnerable of our nation… the poor, the elderly and the unwed.

I can tell you with absolutely certainty that abortion did not bear hope in Holly’s life or the life of her unborn child. It’s time for real change.