![Photo for "I Don\'t Remember The Last Time Someone Wasn\'t Afraid To Hug Me." - NOLA Mission Trip Story 2025](/uploads/blog/articles/170/original/818307e00b8ddd4f8f671d975f099a1adf3b6149.jpg ""I Don't Remember The Last Time Someone Wasn't Afraid To Hug Me." - NOLA Mission Trip Story 2025")
Today we walking around City Park and we met a woman named, Rhonda. She was a woman struggling with addiction. As we prayed for her, I felt the Lord prompting me to give her a hug. She melted into my arms.
A little while later, I ran into her as she was sitting on a bench. She saw me watching our kids interact with another woman and she said: “I don’t remember the last time someone wasn’t afraid to hug me,” she said. “I know I smell. I know I have sores all over me from the drugs. I’ve let so many men take advantage of me. I’m crawling with disease. Why would you hug me?”
I looked at her and said gently, “Because I felt Jesus tell me to.”
In that moment, I was reminded that she’s exactly the kind of person Jesus would stop for. The kind He would touch when no one else would. The kind He would call daughter.
I believe Rhonda is a chosen daughter of the one true King. She’s a woman deeply loved, not discarded. My prayer is that she experiences the healing, redemptive love of Jesus in a way that changes everything. - written by Lauren Strickland
New Orleans Mission Trip
July 2025
The Walk Youth Group
Venmo: oneneednow
Building 229
Thomas County area ministry