Rosa: One of My Regrets

I want to do at least one more person from our prison ministry. The rest of the week I plan to write about my Mother, Grandmother.. and others who have mentored me in honor of Mother's Day.
I enjoyed the women I met in the prison. They knew they had made mistakes, sometimes the worst being to follow marginal men. They were more willing to talk openly about their lives than the general population of women. Some people might have thought I was foolish when I took recently born Katie (born 30 years ago today:))for some of them to see, but I was not afraid at all.
We were going to visit inmates at the California Correctional Facilities in southern California. At the time, our ministry director and his wife were followers of a Biblical counseling philosophy, which encouraged us to find the sin problem and address it with Scripture. Like teaching philosophies that come and go, it was not all-inclusive and to be fair, their point of view shifted drastically and much more graciously not long after the visit I will refer to. Also, the director's wife, now a widow in her 80's, still corresponds and helps inmates in their faith from her home - a ministry of love.
Anyway, I met with Rosa (I don't remember her real name), a young Hispanic woman, whom I happened to know was very bitter and an admitted homosexual. She told me about her life - how she had to crawl to her Father for a plate of beans, how she had come here to the United States with her "wetback" (her words I think) boyfriend/ husband, how he had been found out and sent back to Mexico while she was with child, and how she had been raped by the desk clerk at the hotel where she was staying. I probably answered her with a Scripture and a prayer.
When I got home, I felt very sad for her and could understand why she would have such a hard time believing in a loving, good, male-imaged God. I certainly would have found that difficult or impossible if I were in her same position.
I wish I had shown her more compassion and love and understanding. I have learned a lot since then. A quick answer doesn't solve almost anything. God's love has been my mainstay. I wish I had shown her more of it.