A Miraculous Moment
When working in the drop in center day in and day out; we meet a lot of women. There are some who come in one or two times and we never see them again. Then there are other women who come in consistently and we get to build deep relationships with them. One of those women was Sierra*.
Sierra started coming consistently to the drop in center in fall 2020. She worked at the local motel at the time; working as the receptionist and living there as well. Over time, she got fired from her job, began living between her grandma and friends, and trying to find work. Yet through it all, she consistently came into the drop in center and became someone we all called a friend.
In the summer 2021, Sierra decided to move to New York City to meet up with a guy she met on Facebook. We warned her it was sketchy but she was adamant that she was over Knoxville and ready to start over. So we said good-bye and prayed that God would provide for her however she needed Him too. We heard from Sierra sporadically over the next couple months where she shared how things were going and how much she loved New York. Over time she got tired of New York and her man and she told us she was moving to North Carolina. Shortly after that, we stopped hearing from her, her phone stopped working and she went silent. Our staff didn’t know what to do but we knew she was in God’s hands and all we could do was pray.
A couple of months went by and we still hadn’t heard anything so we just hoped for the best. Then a couple of weeks ago I was working upstairs in our office and I got a text to come downstairs. I walked into our cafe area and to my shock and amazement there was Sierra sitting in the cafe of Likewise Coffee and said “I'M BAACCKK”. I was shocked, I couldn’t believe she was there, back in Knoxville and I burst into tears. She shared some about her journey, how she had lost her phone and all the adventures she had been on for the last 6 months. After her reunion with our staff, she talked to Sara, our local ministry director, that she had been clean the last couple of months and she wanted to go into a program, saying that she was tired of living on the streets and wanted a complete fresh start. So after a week, back in Knoxville, Sara took Sierra to a residential program for trafficked victims a couple hours away. It was a sweet ending to a long and difficult journey and its exciting to see Sierra want to change and go after it. Please keep her in your prayers as she is starting a two year program.
*Name changed