D
This isn't going to be standard fare for a BDF post, but I wanted to share it in BDF so everyone will remember why we all joined this site. This is about God's people coming together to serve God and serve each other.
As many of you know, John (my hubby) and I have been disabled since around the turn of the century. Before that, we could keep up with housecleaning and maintenance. We even started refitting/updating our bathroom. (The number one reason not to mention how ugly tiles are in front of husbands -- because husbands tend to think that is a call to action, and will remove the tiles and the walls, before you even understand why he's doing that. lol) And then disability hit. And then I learned how unable I am anymore. And then disability hit again, and he learned how unable he is anymore.
The best answer to that for either of us, was to pray God would keep our house together, (literally), and do what we could. We were going to save the money to put in a new front window, but once I couldn't work anymore, we lost 30% of our income. And then once his disabilities started kicking in, we lost 50% of what was left of our income. We were stripping a front window when we first moved in (in 1991) and learned the only thing keeping one of our windows in was the paint!
I've been praying ever since for God to keep that window in place, because we could not afford a replacement. (We had three front windows, side by side, so I thought we had to go for a bay window.) And God has been keeping that window in place all this time.
But we have been unable to keep up with basic cleaning for 17 years too, and our home looked like that. If a window a/c broke, it was all we could do to replace it. The broken unit couldn't be pulled out of the house, stuffed into our trunk, and then taken to the city's site. (Trash does not include heavy items in the city.) So, we left them on the floor. And, we cannot go fishing anymore, so we left our fishing equipment in the basement. And, the summer before John found out he was sick, he wasn't working, so when our downstairs a/c didn't work we moved into the study. (Third bedroom.) And to live there, we had to move a lot of books to use the shelves for every day things. (We created a kitchenette kind of thing.) And those books stayed where they landed. Imagine this for 17 years. The piles grow. So does the dust and dirt.
And our carpet came with the house, and it was old back then, so vacuuming became a problem, because threads in the carpet (fat threads too) would stick on the vacuums roller. So we stopped vacuuming.
I'm not shy, so I have been telling this on here for a while, although not in this graphic detail. It's embarrassing, but we could only do so much to fix the problems. And, our house is very small. (16 X 35ish and three floors, but mentally put a staircase and then furniture into any room 16 feet wide and you see how much it shrinks. And, although we have three bedrooms, a hallway and a bath upstairs realize one of those rooms is only 8 feet wide. So is the bathroom, and with the tub and sink, it's thinner than wide.)
But two heard -- God and PennEd. God has been hearing for years now, because that window stayed in, and the rot was under it, so no way should it have stayed in, except a miracle.
PennEd also heard from the Lord, because he gathered a couple of guys to help. (And that couple turned into "a lot.")
Yesterday, about 8 men and 2 women descended onto our house. (I'd tell you exactly how many men, but they were moving so fast, it was hard to keep track. lol) They were real people, all Christians, and going through an assorted variety of emotions. Mostly happy, but I could hear the frustration when the plan didn't meet the reality too. (Plan -- put up new lights in the kitchen and new ceiling tiles. Frustration -- have you ever tried putting in that last tile in a false ceiling? No where to grab it from another opening anymore, and it just does not want to go in. Plan -- put in a ceiling in the bathroom, except the covering will not stay up.)
And jokes were flying in two languages. (I understood "loco," so I knew Mark was calling himself Crazy Mark. He was, but a good kind of crazy, like me. lol)
Real people. Christians. Do you have any idea what it's like to have that many Christians come together for a purpose? You probably do. We haven't experienced it since we could go to church 17 years ago. Overwhelmingly good.
We made sure they'd know we were feeding them. John feared we wouldn't have enough. You know -- 8 turkey thighs for pulled-turkey, two dozen rolls, half a gallon of cole slaw, a quart of tomato salad, a loaf of chocolate banana bread, and 18 pieces of blackberry cobbler might not be enough. lol They barely ate, but I got two guys excited with dessert. I offered, and one said, "We're diabetic, so no sugar."
I answered, "No sugar."
He thought I was disappointed because they couldn't eat sugar, so I then added, "We're diabetics too, so no sugar. Splenda, and whole wheat flour."
Not often you get dessert out when you're diabetic, but they got it.
PennEd's friend Rich pulled something off that's amazing. He approached Lowe's to tell them his plan, and Lowe's gave him a gift certificated. (A pretty big one.) Somehow, he kept doing that, and when they arrived, they brought so much stuff, it didn't just take up our sidewalk. It took up two neighbor's sidewalk too. (Hey, Ed, you might want to tell how, so others could repeat Rich's process.)
We have four windows out front that open and close. (And that's what keeps bringing me to tears. I honestly forgot windows were supposed to be able to open and close.) Anderson Windows! (In America, Anderson is like saying "Cadillac" -- our luxury brand!)
Last week, I got really angry, because I washed a large pan after dinner, so the food wouldn't cake on over night. The next day, when I was putting the lid with that pot, I saw I hadn't cleaned it much at all. We had one light in the center of our kitchen, so washing dishes at night is hit or miss, because we really can't see because of the shadow from our body being at the sink. Now we have four lights, one in each corner, and there is no shadow at the sink!
When Ed first asked me what we needed, my response was to help us get junk out of the house. When he and Rich visited to go through the house, they kept asking what I wanted. I mentioned I wouldn't mind using the bathroom without stuff falling out of the ceiling onto me. We were going to add a false ceiling when we finished the bathroom, but never could. Rich was the one who talked about painting the front windows. I thought that was brilliant, because the paint fell off them years ago. Didn't know paint would turn into windows. He looked at the single florescent light in our kitchen, and all I suggested was covering up the gaps of messing ceiling tiles near it. I really didn't want to put them out, or to spend money we don't have. In my wildest dreams, (and yes, I do play the "if we ever won the lottery, how would we fix up this house" game), I never thought of more than one light in the kitchen.
We have something in our basement and study we haven't had in over a decade -- space! AND, we have something I didn't think would ever be possible again, (and I did clear it out before John came home last year), a front porch to sit in! And not just sit in. We can see out the front windows again without worrying that one window is going to crash in or out. (I have no idea where they hauled all the junk, because the city's sites are closed on Sundays.)
Best thing we got? Fellowship for a whole day!
Remember when that was the purpose for Christians?
As many of you know, John (my hubby) and I have been disabled since around the turn of the century. Before that, we could keep up with housecleaning and maintenance. We even started refitting/updating our bathroom. (The number one reason not to mention how ugly tiles are in front of husbands -- because husbands tend to think that is a call to action, and will remove the tiles and the walls, before you even understand why he's doing that. lol) And then disability hit. And then I learned how unable I am anymore. And then disability hit again, and he learned how unable he is anymore.
The best answer to that for either of us, was to pray God would keep our house together, (literally), and do what we could. We were going to save the money to put in a new front window, but once I couldn't work anymore, we lost 30% of our income. And then once his disabilities started kicking in, we lost 50% of what was left of our income. We were stripping a front window when we first moved in (in 1991) and learned the only thing keeping one of our windows in was the paint!
I've been praying ever since for God to keep that window in place, because we could not afford a replacement. (We had three front windows, side by side, so I thought we had to go for a bay window.) And God has been keeping that window in place all this time.
But we have been unable to keep up with basic cleaning for 17 years too, and our home looked like that. If a window a/c broke, it was all we could do to replace it. The broken unit couldn't be pulled out of the house, stuffed into our trunk, and then taken to the city's site. (Trash does not include heavy items in the city.) So, we left them on the floor. And, we cannot go fishing anymore, so we left our fishing equipment in the basement. And, the summer before John found out he was sick, he wasn't working, so when our downstairs a/c didn't work we moved into the study. (Third bedroom.) And to live there, we had to move a lot of books to use the shelves for every day things. (We created a kitchenette kind of thing.) And those books stayed where they landed. Imagine this for 17 years. The piles grow. So does the dust and dirt.
And our carpet came with the house, and it was old back then, so vacuuming became a problem, because threads in the carpet (fat threads too) would stick on the vacuums roller. So we stopped vacuuming.
I'm not shy, so I have been telling this on here for a while, although not in this graphic detail. It's embarrassing, but we could only do so much to fix the problems. And, our house is very small. (16 X 35ish and three floors, but mentally put a staircase and then furniture into any room 16 feet wide and you see how much it shrinks. And, although we have three bedrooms, a hallway and a bath upstairs realize one of those rooms is only 8 feet wide. So is the bathroom, and with the tub and sink, it's thinner than wide.)
But two heard -- God and PennEd. God has been hearing for years now, because that window stayed in, and the rot was under it, so no way should it have stayed in, except a miracle.
PennEd also heard from the Lord, because he gathered a couple of guys to help. (And that couple turned into "a lot.")
Yesterday, about 8 men and 2 women descended onto our house. (I'd tell you exactly how many men, but they were moving so fast, it was hard to keep track. lol) They were real people, all Christians, and going through an assorted variety of emotions. Mostly happy, but I could hear the frustration when the plan didn't meet the reality too. (Plan -- put up new lights in the kitchen and new ceiling tiles. Frustration -- have you ever tried putting in that last tile in a false ceiling? No where to grab it from another opening anymore, and it just does not want to go in. Plan -- put in a ceiling in the bathroom, except the covering will not stay up.)
And jokes were flying in two languages. (I understood "loco," so I knew Mark was calling himself Crazy Mark. He was, but a good kind of crazy, like me. lol)
Real people. Christians. Do you have any idea what it's like to have that many Christians come together for a purpose? You probably do. We haven't experienced it since we could go to church 17 years ago. Overwhelmingly good.
We made sure they'd know we were feeding them. John feared we wouldn't have enough. You know -- 8 turkey thighs for pulled-turkey, two dozen rolls, half a gallon of cole slaw, a quart of tomato salad, a loaf of chocolate banana bread, and 18 pieces of blackberry cobbler might not be enough. lol They barely ate, but I got two guys excited with dessert. I offered, and one said, "We're diabetic, so no sugar."
I answered, "No sugar."
He thought I was disappointed because they couldn't eat sugar, so I then added, "We're diabetics too, so no sugar. Splenda, and whole wheat flour."
Not often you get dessert out when you're diabetic, but they got it.
PennEd's friend Rich pulled something off that's amazing. He approached Lowe's to tell them his plan, and Lowe's gave him a gift certificated. (A pretty big one.) Somehow, he kept doing that, and when they arrived, they brought so much stuff, it didn't just take up our sidewalk. It took up two neighbor's sidewalk too. (Hey, Ed, you might want to tell how, so others could repeat Rich's process.)
We have four windows out front that open and close. (And that's what keeps bringing me to tears. I honestly forgot windows were supposed to be able to open and close.) Anderson Windows! (In America, Anderson is like saying "Cadillac" -- our luxury brand!)
Last week, I got really angry, because I washed a large pan after dinner, so the food wouldn't cake on over night. The next day, when I was putting the lid with that pot, I saw I hadn't cleaned it much at all. We had one light in the center of our kitchen, so washing dishes at night is hit or miss, because we really can't see because of the shadow from our body being at the sink. Now we have four lights, one in each corner, and there is no shadow at the sink!
When Ed first asked me what we needed, my response was to help us get junk out of the house. When he and Rich visited to go through the house, they kept asking what I wanted. I mentioned I wouldn't mind using the bathroom without stuff falling out of the ceiling onto me. We were going to add a false ceiling when we finished the bathroom, but never could. Rich was the one who talked about painting the front windows. I thought that was brilliant, because the paint fell off them years ago. Didn't know paint would turn into windows. He looked at the single florescent light in our kitchen, and all I suggested was covering up the gaps of messing ceiling tiles near it. I really didn't want to put them out, or to spend money we don't have. In my wildest dreams, (and yes, I do play the "if we ever won the lottery, how would we fix up this house" game), I never thought of more than one light in the kitchen.
We have something in our basement and study we haven't had in over a decade -- space! AND, we have something I didn't think would ever be possible again, (and I did clear it out before John came home last year), a front porch to sit in! And not just sit in. We can see out the front windows again without worrying that one window is going to crash in or out. (I have no idea where they hauled all the junk, because the city's sites are closed on Sundays.)
Best thing we got? Fellowship for a whole day!
Remember when that was the purpose for Christians?
