She was so excited to be chosen to take the training to be a volunteer with Contact Telephone Ministry of Chattanooga. Her pastor had recommended her. She asked him "why me?" He replied, "The Contact workers are trained to befriend troubled callers. The way you are skilled at listening to the rest of us here in this community, makes me believe you would be an effective volunteer." Since she was retirement age, she was not sure she would be chosen to serve, even after taking the training. But even being given the opportunity to take the training excited her. So she took the fifty hours of training. She graduated and was invited to serve on the six to eleven shift. This meant she and another partner would sit by telephones and respond to callers who were aware that "help is as close as your telephone." Each time she was relieved from her service at 11:00pm, she left the center so content. What a joy it was to serve troubled and lonely people...She was rejoicing that life is so good. How wonderful it was to belong to this special group of servants, called Contact workers.
For her, life was so beautiful. That is until one night when she stepped out of the Contact Center into the darkness on a street in Highland Park, where the street was not well lighted. She looked up the street to her car. When she parked her car before entering the contact center it seem close to the Contact Center. Now, at 11 PM, in the dim light from too few street lights, her car seemed so far away. She started to go back in and ask Ralph, the volunteer who had just relieved her to walk her to her car, but she thought, "I can not let fear control me. If I am going to do this important work, I must be brave." So she said one of her favorite prayers, "Jesus, I accept your promise, 'I am with you always.' " So out into the darkened street Sarah went. She had walked no more than fifteen steps when she could hear the steps of a man behind her. She wondered, "Where did he come from? He was not anywhere to be seen, when I left the building." She hurried her pace to get to her car. She prayed, "Lord Jesus, thank you that I am not alone." She got her car keys out so as to be ready. When she got to the car, and put her key in, the hand of a stranger reached out and took hold of her shoulder. Her first thought was to scream, but instead, she said, "In the name of Jesus, I command you to take you hand off me, and leave." The intruder fled. She started her car and went home, rejoicing that there is power in the name of Jesus.
For her, life was so beautiful. That is until one night when she stepped out of the Contact Center into the darkness on a street in Highland Park, where the street was not well lighted. She looked up the street to her car. When she parked her car before entering the contact center it seem close to the Contact Center. Now, at 11 PM, in the dim light from too few street lights, her car seemed so far away. She started to go back in and ask Ralph, the volunteer who had just relieved her to walk her to her car, but she thought, "I can not let fear control me. If I am going to do this important work, I must be brave." So she said one of her favorite prayers, "Jesus, I accept your promise, 'I am with you always.' " So out into the darkened street Sarah went. She had walked no more than fifteen steps when she could hear the steps of a man behind her. She wondered, "Where did he come from? He was not anywhere to be seen, when I left the building." She hurried her pace to get to her car. She prayed, "Lord Jesus, thank you that I am not alone." She got her car keys out so as to be ready. When she got to the car, and put her key in, the hand of a stranger reached out and took hold of her shoulder. Her first thought was to scream, but instead, she said, "In the name of Jesus, I command you to take you hand off me, and leave." The intruder fled. She started her car and went home, rejoicing that there is power in the name of Jesus.
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