THE GRACE ALIVE MINISTRY: EVEN THE ANOINTED FALL

CHAPTER THREE : THE PRINCESS AND THE PRODIGAL

   

It was Saturday and probably the second to the worst day of Rachel's life ,the worst day was Sunday. Every Saturday for the past two years she had tried to swallow her fears of walking through the church doors of G.A.M on Sunday but the feeling never left. Maybe it  was simply because the feelings of the people never changed either.

Everyone in the community knew her, she was the famous Rachel Carter, high school drop out,voted most likely to never succeed, prostitute, home breaker amongst many other disgusting titles that she held.

No one saw who she was now,the woman with a past whom God gave a future, she was the prodigal daughter looking for a second chance and a way to right all the wrongs she had done in life. And at twenty seven she was no where near her target of making people like her, especially at her church.

There were only three reasons why she remained in this community for so long. One being the fact that she had promised pastor John and his wife that she would someday establish herself in this same community that rejected her. Two because she just knew that this community was her home and nowhere else. Three ,because it was her only way of survival.

After she had given her life to Christ, Rachel had been left jobless, there were no more men to seduce, no more videos to sell,no more strip clubs ,no more source of income. Her friends who she used to work with had refused to help her and more times than normal ,she had been tempted to go back. Until pastor John hired her as the official church cleaner

That was how she got back on her feet, she had cleaned the church and God had cleaned her life. Now she had three jobs . Two as a waitress at restaurants owned by church members and the last as a house keeper for Whosoever was interested.

The pay from these jobs had managed to get her a one bedroom apartment sparsely finished with a second hand sofa, a nice mattress, an old box TV and a fridge you had to kick real hard once in a while to work, along with other things. She was happy and content at least it was better than living on the streets.

Still, Rachel knew she had a long way to go, she was saving up for her education and taking a few night classes but there were other things that bothered her, like the fact that she didn't really have any friends and everyone stayed clear of her especially Hannah, her half sister and also most popular bachelorette in the entire community and at church

Everyone loved Hannah, she could sing,flag dance, cook, bake and still had a good job as a pediatrician at one of the most prestigious private hospitals around. Hannah was everything Rachel would never be...successful and loved and yet Rachel couldn't bring herself to hate Hannah the way Hannah hated her.

Everyone knew that the Carter sisters stayed clear of each other mostly because one was ashamed of the other , in the last two years they hadn't said more than twenty words to themselves and it was getting worse by the week. They were opposites in everything. Hannah had blond hair and Rachel's was jet black , Hannah had blue eyes and Rachel's was brown,Hannah had skin that glowed in the sun and all Rachel could boast of was a pale sickly colour but most of all Hannah was beautiful and Rachel was just plain ugly .

Then there was Riley ,her former best friend and now bff's with her sister. Riley hated her with passion and she deserved it especially after the accident with Riley's father. That was just one of the numerous mistakes she still had to fix .
She looked out the window and thought of her sister, what was she doing now?

When they were little they were inseparable and now they just had to stay clear of each other and everyone knew it was her fault. She remembered the day her parents had brought Hannah home. She and Riley had been playing house when she heard her mother screaming at her father for betraying her. Mother never really liked Hannah and Rachel never knew why until she grew up to discover that Hannah was a product of an affair her father had at work. Hannah's mother died in a car accident with no trace of her relatives and her father as the next of kin she had nowhere else to go but his house.