Hard As Nails

So, one last Colorado trip story .....

I walked into Westcliffe's lone grocery store.  I was a little early so I was looking for some flowers for my cousin and some water to cool my parched throat!  It was only day two on my new leg, so stumbling around and in great pain.  The only other people in the store was a middle aged lady with badly dyed hair and a blonde 13, perhaps 14, year old girl.

After four decades of working with teenagers, I am pretty good at setting kids ages - assuming they were not exposed to drugs used for TB.  And, far as much as I have thought on this young lady, there is just no way she can come in any older than 14!

Like any teenager, she totally ignored me.  Huge older men just get use to not existing.  At her age, I would have been beaten for not at least saying, "Hi".  Such a different world we live in!  The older lady was really wound up and quite anxious to leave but the girl was dragging her heels as she selected junk food.  Older lady was picking out carrot sticks, diet pop and other "healthy" alternatives to snickers.  And in their interaction - the girl was as hard as nails!  I was more than just a little surprised at this ... it made me interested in knowing her background and what the really problem is.

By now we are in line to pay.  She looks bemused at my selections (flowers, water and an UNO bar) and then up at me.  Yeah, I towered over her by two feet!  But, like all whom actually look at me - they discover I can "see" them.  And the following typical reaction: utter shock!  What did I "see"?  Rage, complete and utter rage!  Such hatred, such complete and utter rage ... at men.

I was taken back and I had no understanding ...

When it came time to pay, the girl opened her over sized purse, for so little a girl and pulled out a $100 bill.  I happened to also see that she had a stack of $100's well over four inches thick!  According to the police, that would be well over $98,000! in cash, in a little girl's purse!

I learned from the police that they are having real problems with human trafficking in the valley.  My first reaction was, "but this is Mennonite ...".  Why should I be surprised?  People are pigs the world over and the greater  your appearance to God, the greater is Satan's activity in neutralizing any possible validity you could have!  sigh ...

It pains me to think that this one could be part of the human trafficking activity.  Sadder more to think that it would be better if she was part of the drug running scene in Colorado.  Westcliffe is such an out of the way place, it is not even on the road to anywhere!  And such corruption is to be found there!

Even though it now looks like I could retire here, thanks to my pending inheritance, including much land - but between high altitude, Tex-Mex cooking and whatever is going on in the valley involving this girl - suddenly my excitement is abated.   If God wants me there, He will make it compelling that I must be there ... I hope not.  I am not excited about being thrust into an environment where I have to make a public stand against evil again.

I am still licking my wounds from the last time.