"Unfair" - as told by Tech Support Sheila Kendall

"That last phone call was the boss.  He said we could close up and go home."  This news from the receptionist cheered the office staff, since it was twenty-five minutes to our regular leaving time.  We started putting away our work and getting ready to leave.  Even though I needed to go on to another job, I lingered behind when a couple of the other ladies left, because the Family Help counselor had someone in her office and I didn't want to leave her alone with them.

In spite of the fact that the answering machine was set to catch incoming calls, I picked it up out of habit, thinking it would just be someone wanting to know our store hours or some other easy call.  The man on the other end wanted to see about the possibility of getting a room for the weekend.  I looked him up in the computer and got updated information for his case, but all the while I was thinking, "Why do people like him not plan ahead better when they go somewhere?  And why do they wait until last thing Friday afternoon to try to do something about it?"  I could see my twenty-five minutes slipping away to nothing.

Meanwhile, the other lady had gone to the Community Food Center to give food to the mother and daughter who had been in her office, and I realized I needed information from her.  Putting the traveling man on hold, I went out the side door and across the parking lot to the Food Center.  When I came close to the corner of the building, I saw that the mother and 4-year-old daughter had finished loading up several sacks of groceries and were alone on the parking lot.  Seeing the woman take her daughter by both hands, I stopped when I heard her begin to speak so that I wouldn't intrude.  "Let's go home, honey.  We can eat now!"

In the office, on our side of the split door to which people come for help, there is a poster.  It says, "The people who come to this door are not an interruption to my busy schedule.  They are here by divine appointment to see Jesus.  That's where I come in..."