Forgotten (Book 3--Forsaken Series) Read online

  “I’m waiting,” Betty eagerly urged her.

  “Remember how the Apostle Paul kept asking God to take away a certain thorn in his flesh?”

  “Yes, I know that scripture well. I’ve lived it,” Betty said with sorrow etched across her face.

  “Well, what if his thorn in the flesh was something that others could point to and ridicule him about? I mean, think about it, Mama. Apostle Paul could have been dealing with something that others could have used to show why he was unfit for the ministry. But God simply told him, ‘My grace is sufficient for you.’ So maybe God’s grace is sufficient for me in this situation, also.”

  “You better preach, girl,” Betty said as she stood up and patted Margie on the back. “Forget about what I said, Margie. You just go on and let God use you.”

  “I’m trying, Mama, I really am. Through Linda, God showed me that there are people out there with worse pain than I endured, but they have been cast aside and forgotten by the very people who are supposed to go out and get the lost… I just want to help,” she sighed, “be a listening ear or something. I’m just praying that God will help me with this.”

  “If He is calling you to do this, then He will. Plus, I’m here for you.” Betty headed for the door.

  Before her mother could get out of the room, Margie asked, “But how can I reach people that are hiding because of their pain? It’s not like I have a platform or a pulpit.”

  Betty was reflective for a moment, and then she snapped her fingers. “What about starting one of them Yahoo groups, or a fan page on Facebook? The online ministry that I’m a member of has both, and we are able to communicate with each other all the time.”

  Nodding, Margie considered that a real possibility. “Mother, you are a genius. I hadn’t even thought about that. I’ll call it the ‘When Church Hurts Group’.”

  ***

  Pastor Lamont Stevens was seated behind his office manager’s desk opening the mail and answering the phone. Frustrated, Lamont searched through her computer files. He needed the information on an upcoming funeral and the list of members that he visited in the hospital. If he didn't find those files, Lamont wasn't sure how he would be able to meet his commitments for the rest of the week.

  His former office manager, Beverly Johnson wasn't about to help him out. Less than an hour ago, she stepped from behind her desk, grabbed her purse and screamed, “I can’t take this anymore.”

  Lamont had no idea what Beverly was so upset about, but honestly, after witnessing one of his deacons get handcuffed and thrown into the back of a police car on the news last night, and then visiting Darla Williams, one of his most faithful members, at the hospital this morning after she tried to commit suicide, nothing else could shock him.

  Lamont had started his church at the encouragement of Pastor JT Thomas, his friend and mentor. JT had convinced Lamont that God was going to use him in a mighty way. However, JT had been talking about sometime in the future, but Lamont had believed that his time was right now. So he’d spent most of the money his dad had given him as kind of a very late child support check and opened Overcomers Outreach Ministries.

  The name had a special meaning to him, because he was working to overcome some bad decisions he’d made in his life before JT came and rescued him in Louisiana. But as Lamont sat behind his assistant’s desk, he wondered if he should change the name of his church from Overcomers to Quitters and Bank Robbers. Lamont just couldn’t figure out how people could so easily give up on God and His great gift of salvation.

  “Hey Youngblood, whatcha know good?”

  Lamont looked up into the smiling face of the infamous JT Thomas, the man who got him into this present mess. “I don’t know too much good today, since I just had another office manager quit on me this morning.”

  “You’re kidding,” Cassandra Thomas, JT’s beautiful wife said as she walked into the room behind her husband.

  “I wish I was, but obviously I need divine intervention on how to pick good employees,” Lamont said.

  “I hate to agree with you, but this is your third office manager. And the church doors only opened six months ago,” JT said.

  Lamont lowered his head. “Rub it in, why don’t you.”

  Cassandra walked behind the desk and grabbed hold of Lamont’s arm, ushering him out of the chair. “I was going to attend the lunch meeting the two of you have with Pastor Jenson, but why don’t you and JT go. I’ll see if I can get some of this stuff straightened out for you here.”

  Jumping out of the chair with a hopeful look on his face, Lamont gave Cassandra a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you so much,” he said with a sigh of relief. “I’m blessed to have the two of you in my life.”

  JT turned to his wife and asked, “Do you think you might be able to help Lamont out a couple days a week… until he can hire someone else?”

  “I’ll do better than that,” Cassandra said. “I plan to help him find his next office manager—someone who will work hard and be dependable.”

  “I could kiss you again,” Lamont said.

  JT held a hand up, restraining Lamont. “Hold it now, Youngblood. I can see right now that we need to find you an office manager and a woman, with all this kissing you’re trying to do.”

  “Leave Lamont alone, JT. He has been going through it, trying to get his ministry up and running.” Cassandra leaned over and pecked Lamont on the cheek. “He deserves a kiss.”

  “Come on, boy, let me get you out of here before I lose my appetite,” JT said in a disgruntled manner.

  Lamont and Cassandra both laughed as JT pushed Lamont towards the door. “Bring me a grilled chicken salad back from wherever y’all decide to eat at,” Cassandra said.

  “You got it, babe.” JT grinned like a man who’d just won a million dollars as he and Lamont stepped outside.

  “What are you grinning about?” Lamont asked once they were in the car and on their way down the street.

  JT gave him a questioning glance, then as he turned back to the road. “What? I didn’t realize that I was grinning… guess it’s just the joy of the Lord shining through.”

  “Mmph,” Lamont said with a smirk on his face.

  “Mmph, what?”

  Lamont leaned back in his seat. “I just think it’s nice to have a woman that puts a smile on your face like that.”

  Grinning again, JT said, “Sanni does make me happy. I just wish I hadn’t been such a knuckle head for the first few years of our marriage.”

  “I know what you mean. I’m praying that I’ll know a good thing when I see her and won’t get caught slipping, like so many of us do,” Lamont said.

  JT hit the brake hard as they pulled up to a traffic light. He eyed Lamont. “Did I hear you right? Are you actually thinking about finding a wife and settling down?”

  “I’m thinking about it.” Lamont had wounds that needed to be healed before he could truly consider marriage, but he was working on it.

  “What about Sonya? Have you forgiven yourself for that situation yet?”

  Lamont glanced out of his window and counted cars as they drove by. “I’ve been praying about it. Some days I think I’ve finally let it go and forgiven myself, but other days I still feel this weight of condemnation.”

  “You know God isn’t condemning you, right?”

  “Yeah, JT, I know,” Lamont said. But he still hadn’t found a way to get himself out of the prison he’d put himself in, so he switched the subject. “And can you please explain to me why in the world you would agree to do a revival with the likes of Walt Jenson?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You know exactly what I mean. The man is no good. He preaches on Sunday, but sleeps around on his wife the rest of the week… and I might be giving him too much credit, because he might be cheating on her on Sunday, too.”

  “Sadly, he probably is,” JT agreed.

  “Then why do we need to partner with him on this revival?”

  JT shook his head. “We don’t need W
alt… he needs us. And since I used to be just like him, I want to be there when things fall apart for him. This is just my way of paying it forward.”

  Now Lamont was confused. “What do you mean?”

  “When I fell into sin and lost my church, most everyone left me and called me everything but a child of God. But there were two preachers who stuck with me. They mentored me until I was strong enough to once again stand on my own two feet.”

  “Is that why you’re mentoring me even though I decided to open my own church well before you thought I was ready?”

  They came to a red light; JT stopped and then turned to Lamont. “I might not agree with your timing, but make no mistake about it, you are a better man than I ever will be. So, I have no worries that you’re going to make the same mistakes I made. I am mentoring you because I believe God has a mission for you and I want to be there to help move you in the right direction so you don’t miss your moment.”

  “Wow, thanks for saying that, JT. I had no idea that you believe that strongly in me and what God has for me.”

  “Just don’t let it go to your head,” JT said with a chuckle, then took off again when the light changed. “As a matter of fact, I want you to pay close attention to everything said and done by Walt, so that you know exactly what not to do.”

  Three

  “Mom, come look!” Margie yelled from the small room in her mother’s house that she had converted into an office.

  Betty ran through the house and stumbled over her feet as she pushed open the door and entered Margie’s office. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

  “Calm down, Mom, don’t have a heart attack. I just wanted to show you something.” Margie pointed to her computer screen.

  Grabbing her chest, Betty took a few deep breaths as she sat down next to Margie. “You mean to tell me that you were screaming through this house like somebody was chasing you so that you could show me something on Facebook?”

  Laughing at her scolding, Margie put her hand on her mother’s shoulder. “You can stop worrying about me so much. I’m all right.” She lifted her hand scout’s honor style. “I promise.”

  “Girl, whatever. I hope you know that a mother’s job is never done. I’m going to worry about you until the day they carry me out of here in a pine box.”

  “Well, I’m just trying to let you know that God has my back.” Margie pointed to her computer screen again. “And this is proof.”

  Betty leaned closer to the screen, squinted as she read the information and then exclaimed, “You’ve got a job interview!”

  “Yes, can you believe it? All these months of searching the Help Wanted ads, and Internet job sites without even getting a call back… then I’m on Facebook and see a post about a pastor looking for an office manager and bam… I emailed them my resume and I’ve got an interview.”

  Betty gnawed on her bottom lip. “You’ll be working for a preacher?”

  “There you go worrying again.” Margie playfully nudged her mother as she said, “I’m not the same person who used to work for JT, Mom. I won’t make the mistake of falling for another preacher ever again. So trust me when I say that your prayers worked; I now have sense enough to know what’s good for me and what’s not.”

  Betty gave her daughter a hug. “You’re right, honey. I should stop worrying so much about you. After all, you are a full grown woman with a job interview.” With those words, Betty got up and started dancing around the room. “My baby has a job… my baby has a job,” she chanted as she danced.

  “Hold up, Mama. I don’t have the job yet, just an interview.”

  Betty stopped dancing, turned to Margie and gave her a challenging look. “Didn’t you just get finish telling me that God’s got this?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Then you’ve got this job. It’s in the bag, girl. So you might as well get up and start shouting with me.”

  Thinking that her mother had the right attitude, Margie got up and started her own two step. “I got a job… I got a job.”

  ***

  As she drove to Overcomers Outreach Ministry for her interview, Margie tried her best to keep the faith. She had been laid off almost two years ago with only sporadic temp jobs and unemployment checks keeping them afloat. Actually, floating was the wrong word for what they were doing. Since her mother was retired and living on a fixed income, they were slowly sinking into a world of overdue bills and disconnection notices. Margie needed this job like she needed to breathe and eat and keep a roof over her head.

  Thanks to Congress, her unemployment was about to run out, so if she couldn’t convince Pastor Stevens to hire her today, Margie’s only recourse would be to fast, pray and call on the name of Jesus, because that’s all she had left. Marissa would be seven years old in two weeks.

  Her daughter had innocently asked for a princess birthday party. Since all the money Marissa and her mother managed to put together went toward bills, there was no way that she would be able to pay for it. Margie was so tired of telling her little girl that there was no money for the things she needed or wanted.

  As she pulled up in the church parking lot, Margie said a quick prayer and then got out of the car. She smoothed out her black skirt and checked for wrinkles in her all business white, button down shirt. As far as Margie was concerned, she looked professional. She tucked her portfolio, which held her resume, under her arm and stepped inside of the church. The fellowship hall was spacious with a bookstore on one side, and tables and chairs for dining or socializing on the other side. The space felt warm and inviting and Margie felt right at home immediately. She even liked the name of the church. It matched her story, for Margie was nothing if not an overcomer. The church layout was similar to the last church she had worked at, so Margie walked up the hall and turned right in search of the office manager’s desk or the pastor’s office.

  But as she turned the corner, Margie thought her eyes were playing tricks on her, because Cassandra Thomas, JT’s wife, was sitting behind the desk grinning at her.

  “Hello, Margie, I’m glad you didn’t have any trouble finding the church,” Cassandra said as she stood to greet her.

  Margie’s feet were planted as if someone had glued the soles of her shoes to the floor. She swallowed and stuttered, “What are you doing here?”

  “I’ve been helping Lamont out until he can find someone to replace his last assistant. I sure hope you’re the one, because I’m tired of this job already,” Cassandra joked, trying to lighten the mood.

  Margie crossed her arms around her chest. “What have you told Pastor Stevens about me?”

  “I gave him your resume, but he and I haven’t had time for a sit down this week. He’s been pretty busy.”

  “Mmph,” Margie said, still planted in the same spot.

  “I’m serious, Margie. I haven’t said anything about you to Lamont.”

  “You expect me to believe that you saw my name on a resume and you didn’t bother to inform Pastor Stevens about the mistake I made with your husband years ago?” Margie harrumphed. “I don’t believe it.”

  “Believe what you want, Margie, just know this… I don’t spend my days dreaming up things to do to people who have wronged me in the past. I choose to move forward.” Cassandra moved toward Margie as she continued, “Now it is true that I realized who you were when I got your resume. I also saw your Facebook page and can tell that you are trying to help others who have been wounded in the church, just as you had been. I think you are the right person for Lamont.”

  Still not sure if she should believe a word Cassandra said, Margie asked, “And why is that?”

  “If you get the job, you’ll figure all of that out in due time.” Cassandra began walking out of the small office, then she stopped and turned back to Margie. “Are you coming? I’d like to introduce you to Pastor Stevens so I can get home to my children.”

  The last time Margie was this close to Cassandra, they were inside of a court room and Margie had just testified against h
er husband for abusing his power as overseer of a church and manipulating her into having an affair with him. Maybe Cassandra saw this as her opportunity to get back at Margie for the things she said that day. Maybe if she let Cassandra know that none of that was her idea, then Cassandra would leave her alone… maybe the next job interview she goes to, she won’t find Cassandra sitting there, smiling and plotting revenge.

  “Look Cassandra, I don’t want any trouble from you. I haven’t seen your husband in years and I really need a job so I can support my child; so if your goal is to get me to suffer for the things I did, then rest assured that I have already suffered enough. I’m just trying to pull my life back together now.” Margie hated that her voice sounded so shaky, but she was nervous. This woman had the ability to ruin her name all over town if she chose to do so.

  Cassandra stopped walking and turned back to where Margie was standing. She gently put her hand on Margie’s shoulder as she said, “I have forgiven you, Margie. I think it’s time for you to forgive yourself.”

  Margie’s eyes moistened as she held back tears that so desperately wanted to flow down her face. Cassandra was right. It was time for some self love and forgiveness. She nodded. “Thank you for saying that. I’ve come a long way, and I know that God has forgiven me, but I think I still struggle with forgiving myself for the things I did.”

  “Well now I know what to pray about on your behalf.” Cassandra stepped back for a moment, then smiled at Margie and said, “Come on, let’s get the job interview over with so you can take care of that little girl of yours.”

  Wiping her eyes, Margie said, “T-thank you. I really appreciate this opportunity.”

  “No need to thank me.” Cassandra pointed toward a closed door as they continued to walk towards it. “You’ve got to get through this interview in order to get the job.”