Hannah's government class took a field trip to the criminal courthouse yesterday. The kids were all free to go to whichever trials they chose, switch trials, etc. as long as they obeyed courthouse rules and were quiet and respectful.
Hannah became fascinated by a murder trial and stayed in it the entire time although other classmates came and went. A doctor was giving testimony about his client, Paul, who suffers from disassociation and also being bipolar. Without going into all the details, the "voices" took over at one point about two years ago and Paul murdered his girlfriend.
Listening to Hannah tell about this, my heart was breaking for Paul, his family, his murdered girlfriend, and her family. Most poignant was when the doctor said that Paul wanted to be good and would try to read the Bible and pray. All the while the voices would be roaring in his head, telling him that he was a murderer, that it is impossible for him to be good or pray to God.
I was haunted by this last night and, of course, feel that I have been given a prayer "assignment" for all the people involved. Hannah told me the same thing.
Her field trip had been planned for a couple of weeks ago but the water pipes at the school burst and the trip was postponed. So not only did the kids get a couple of days off (though I know that the teachers and administration had a royal headache because of it) but Hannah saw this trial which brought Paul to our attention. God uses all for His good I think.
( By the way, I am not posting this to start a lot of questions about Paul's condition or any other details of the situation. There is no way we know enough about it to comment on that in any constructive fashion.)
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