Crime Victim Restitution's Act

I tell this story not as one who has accomplished much but as one who was obedient. God did not call us to act timidly but to step boldly while knowing that he is there to guard and protect us while measuring and determining our very steps. We need to live knowing that as long as we are obedient to God's word and his prompting that the ultimate outcomes and results are up to Him. If we are able to keep our hearts open and able to be burdened for others we will be able to do much, in His name and power, to help others about us who need our comfort and action. By being sensitive to these defining moments we can best see the results of God and his hand.

In December of 2004, I had occasion to meet with someone who worked in the District Attorney’s Office in California. She informed me that California had a law on the books for about seven years that required the perpetrators of serious crimes against children, such as molestation, to pay for the victim’s medical and counseling care. By the end of the week of that meeting God asked me to take this issue to the state of Georgia as our state, at that time, had nothing to protect our Georgia children. God crystallized what I was supposed to do and in a desire to be obedient I set about to accomplish what He had asked me to do, “to make this a Georgia law.”

Within a week of God telling me to march, I was able to obtain a meeting with GA Senator Renee Unterman, a woman who like myself had a heart for those who could not protect themselves. Within sixty days the proposed law and I were in front of the most influential committee in either GA House, the Senate Judiciary Committee who quickly unanimously agreed to its passage. From there the bill went to the Senate Floor where it also passed 47-1. Our next stop was the GA House where unfortunately the law got stuck. I guess God did not want the law passed in 2004. During this time and since I continually contacted and lobbied the Governor Purdue’s Office and I thought that those contacts were falling on deaf ears. Boy was I soon to be surprised.

To begin the 2005 Legislative Session, Governor Purdue sponsored the Crime Victim Restitution's Act of 2005, which set up a procedure for notification, and reimbursement of the victim’s medical and counseling expenses. 86% of the Georgia legislature voted in favor of the bill and then the Governor signed it on April 11 and it will become law on July 1, 2005.

I do not feel that I accomplished any of this but I do know that I was obedient to God and to His leading and to what God would have me do. No matter what it is, listen to that still small voice the Lion of Judah, the Alpha and the Omega speaking to you and to your heart. Make time for Him each and every day of your lives. Put on the armor of God and meet the world head on keeping in mind and focusing on eternal things. Dare to dream, dare to move, and know that He alone is God. Together we can all make a difference in this world. Dare to attempt something so great for God that it is doomed to failure lest He be in it!

I am now exploring whether God wants me to try to get this law passed at the federal level. I believe in a God can and will do all that he sets out to and I pray that he uses me deeply in his work.