We all face disasters every day. Many of them are personal to just ourselves or local events but occasionally a localized event will become a national or even international event.
When those planes flew into the twin towers 10 years ago, I knew instantly my life had just changed dramatically. Living in Missouri you might have wondered why I would think such a thing.
My husband served in the Missouri Air National Guard and I instantly knew he would soon be mobilized with his unit. We had 5 children at home at the time and home educated each of them. My husband and I both worked 2 jobs in an effort to get out of debt. We arranged our schedules so one of us was at home most of the time. We also had our home up for sale but had not had any promising lookers in the 2 years it was listed.
He was in deed mobilized and by early November was gone more than home. We turned to mighty prayer in how we could manage all we had to deal with. At first my husbands civilian employer did not supplement his military income. We faced an immediate 75% cut in income. I had to cut my hours back to be able to deal with the children also.
The first answer to prayer was a cash buyer showing up. We closed a week later and had to be out of the house the same day. My husband was not able to get off to come home and help and folks from church seemed to disappear. I had 2 lovely sisters who showed up and packed out my kitchen. Years later I still pray for those two sweet angels! I rented a storage unit and the kids and I hauled everything down and threw it in. We broke stuff and we sure lost stuff! But we got us moved. I found a dumpy trailer to rent and quickly realized we had to get out fast. Heating it was twice as much as the rent! My husband begged me to stay put but he got to come stay one night with us and that night was an experience that lead him to say, move and move now!
A drug dealer running from authorities went under our trailer and we were instantly surrounded by a good 20 police cars with lights and sirens blaring and they stayed on all night long. We left home at 5am to take dear ole very tired Dad for his flight taking him over seas.
Getting rid of the 1st and 2nd mortgages allowed us some room to breathe. Also after the first 1 1/2 months his civilian employer started giving us 3/4 of my husbands pay. Blessings continued for us! A few years before we felt impressed to buy some land. We got 99 acres up near the Iowa border and had started a pole barn on it. All the poles were in and about a 1/3 of the roof. The kids and I moved up there on February 1st and lived in a tent. It snowed clear into May that year! But the Lord's blessing continued.
We were way off the beaten path. It took 7 month's for the electric co-op to get a line out to us and 8 month's for the Phone co-op to get here. We had plenty of time to get the roof and walls up! We were blessed with a freak warm up and was able to get concrete floor poured early on. Maybe that's why it snowed later!
Then there was people! All kinds of people turning up to help us. One family from Minnesota said they just jumped in their car and started driving with no clue where they were going! They sure answered our prayers the day they showed up here! Another family about 7 miles from us had a heated guest house for us to stay in for a month rent free. We sure worked from first light to dark getting the roof and walls done during that time! We had more blessings during this time than I could ever list!
We worked hard and lived off our food storage and learned so very much that year! My husband was gone most of 8 years. Our twin daughters still say they don't know their Dad. They were just barely 8 when he left and 16 when he returned. It is our one big regret of those years.
One local event that changed millions of lives. Life happens, I hope and pray you'll always be ready for what ever comes your way!
Cherlynn
brchbell@yahoo.com
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