Dis-Strib-Ute

Though they make it so easy sometimes, this edition of Dis-Strib-Ute does not cast a critical eye on the Strib. I wanted to point out a couple of heartwarming stories.

The first concerns the deployment of significant numbers of the Minnesota National Guard to Iraq.

As this article says:

More than 2,500 Army National Guard members from communities around Minnesota are in the midst of a busy blitz of similar final preparations as they set their civilian lives aside and begin mobilizing this week for what is expected to be at least 18 months of active duty. It's the Minnesota Guard's largest overseas deployment since World War II.

The article puts a human face on the deployment by focusing on one Guard member, Becky Gerboth. The article follows her around as she settles affairs here, and prepares for departure. One little detail to take care of was getting married:

Two weeks ago, with deployment fast approaching, Gerboth married her high-school sweetheart, Sean, in an elaborately planned ceremony at a Roseville country club. The couple then departed for a quick honeymoon in Hawaii. They returned on Friday. On Monday, she will leave to eventually be deployed to the Middle East, where she will head a Guard unit of communications specialists.

Such deployments are not easy on Guard members and their families:

Heather Muster appreciates Malcolm's situation. As part of this Guard deployment, Malcolm will be replacing her husband -- another Guard physician who put a fellowship on hold when he went to Iraq. It was his second deployment.

"There are things about deployment that the public knows very little about," said Muster, who also is a doctor. "The long-term impact on income, marriage, mental health, public attitude, employer discrimination and other topics is rarely mentioned."

So, as the Minnesota Guard prepares to deploy, we say a heartfelt thank-you for their dedication and willingness to serve. God's blessing to one and all.

The second item comes from a Nick Coleman column. (pause while dentures are spit out all over the country) Yes, you read that correctly. Which is why I wanted to mention this. This may never happen again. (For those not familiar with Strib columnist Nick Coleman, browse through Power Line's posts on him. The fellas regularly take to their keyboards and turn Coleman into tahini paste.)

Coleman devotes today's column to a woman named Diva.

Diva's real name is Bernice, but she likes Diva better.

She has a beauty shop on E. Lake Street in Minneapolis called Diva's Hair Studio, and if you curse while at Diva's, she will fine you $1. She does not allow swearing in her shop, which is on the block where, at 15, she turned her first trick and became a prostitute.

That seems to her like something the Lord must have wanted. After she cleaned up, eight years ago, Diva had dreams of having her own beauty shop.

But when she looked at the empty store at 710 E. Lake, she didn't want to rent it because it was near the corner where she had become a hooker. Then, with a shock, she realized that it was the very same place she had been seeing in her dreams.

"I couldn't believe it," she says. "This is where my life of misery began. But I am able to witness, to tell people how God brought me out. I pray and lay hands on people up and down this street. I talk to the fellows about the Lord and invite them to church. These are my people, and I love my people. But if I weren't in the Spirit, I'd be afraid. There are some hard-core people out here."
...
She is 43 and talks frankly about her life as a hooker -- the drugs, the drinking, the violence -- and the years of being "a horrible parent" to her kids: Michael, 20, and Bennisha, 18.

"I was a stripper, I was a hooker, I carried pistols, I smoked dope, I snorted coke," she says.

"I did it all."

Including this: In 1983, she hit a john over the head with a hammer. The guy went to the cops, and Diva pleaded guilty to assault and did six months in the workhouse.

That was 22 years ago, but it still shows up on her record. A dead weight from the past that can prevent a person from getting a job, a loan or an apartment years after they have cleaned up.

How did Diva turn her life around?

Diva's act changed when her heart did: after a friend she used to hook with took her to church.

"I was at my breaking point," she says. "Death was all over me, and I kept feeling that I was going to die if I didn't change. I knew there had to be a better life. So two days before my 35th birthday, I gave my life to the Lord and the Lord delivered me from dope, from alcohol, from the prostitution.

"And I never looked back."

There was one brief lapse, early on, when the drugs caught up with her. But she recovered, finished treatment, went to school, got her beauty license and set up shop on Lake Street.

I can't for the life of me figure out why Coleman would write about how the power and love of God can change lives. But I'm glad he did. There are many people like Diva in tough neighborhoods in the Twin Cities, but God can help them too.

Diva says:

"I am a happier person," she says. "I have my life, I have peace, I have joy, I have compassion, I have understanding. This is the best life I've had.

That is a changed person. God can do the same for any of us. If we just let Him.