“Thus says the LORD; … Rachel is weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted …, because they are no more. Thus says the LORD, Refrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for … they will return from the land of the enemy. Your children will return …” (Jeremiah 3 1 : 15–17)

Rachel O’Regan, “Mom” at Penticton’s Way Inn Coffee House, stared at her Bible with astonishment. She’d just come from another early-morning rendezvous with God on the mountains above the city. Lately, these had become times of wordless prayers and uncontrollable weeping – incomprehensible to her, yet somehow deeply meaningful. Now, face freshened, smile intact, she was again ready to be “second mother” to any street kids happening by. A long-haired man from Quebec was first this morning. He waited silently while she looked through her Bible for a verse for him.