LaVonne

She is a felon and I've been thinking about her a lot lately.

I never met LaVonne, but Bob knew her because her kids were in his summer program last year. Bob hired LaVonne as the craft coordinator. She did a great job, Bob said. He needed help because a lot of kids from the neighborhood were showing up.

They sent her to prison because of some kind of a welfare technicality. Welfare fraud. Too much food on the table or something like that. She actually served her whole sentence. Kids without a mother that whole time. They paid their debt to society, kids-n-all. She says she knows she did something wrong and she's sorry. I'm not exactly sure what is wrong with feeding your family but that's just me.

It looks like some people go to jail for stuff like this. While another person got pardoned by the President of the United States of America for outing a CIA agent, jeopardizing national security, and then lying about it. The President said the sentence was excessive. The judge, who was appointed by the very same President's administration, was baffled. But I digress.

Oh yes, back to LaVonne. LaVonne is now back with her kids and still trying to figure out how to put enough food on the table. She's trying to get a job and dog gone, now she has a felony record so who's going to hire her? Not to mention the indignity. Not to mention her kid's indignity.

Bob really liked working with her at the summer program. And was glad there was money in the budget to hire her for a few weeks. Amanda worked as LaVonne's assistant in the craft room. LaVonne said she did a good job.

Then like magic I came across this brochure about a program to earn a certificate to become a public library clerk. It seemed perfect for her. LaVonne was interested and had already begun to figure out the bus routes to the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, where the training would take place. (This is where I got my Leadership Certificate.) Bob would serve as the advocate in case that nasty felony thingie came up in the application process.

Poof.

The parish decided that their files were just a mess. What they needed was an administrative pastor to clean up the office. And that's what they got.

LaVonne and her kids were out of our life.

I really do believe that ministry happens in spite of our human decisions. But sometimes I still cry over stuff like this.

With love, T