Merry Christmas!
It’s been really busy the past month around here.
One week we were coordinating three different deliveries which was tough-especially when the weather threw all plans out the window.
Our storage area is on a farm property which isn’t necessarily plowed every time it snows. After the first “big” snowfall, which was an amount that would have gotten someone stuck, this became a dilemma.
In fact, it was the same week of the three deliveries. God provided a connection that took care of it! We got in there and sorted what was needed for the three families with no glitches. A single mom got beds for her two kids, a senior citizen got a bed and other household items and another family who was moving received two needed beds and bedding. It was incredible to see how God provided that week.
A referral was received from the food shelf which actually came to them from the local grocery store manager a week before Christmas. His wife had left him for someone else and then he was in a car accident that injured him. He was in a nursing home recovering through October and now was living in his car and had no place to live or work. Because of his accident injuries, he was not able to go back to the work he had skills for but we were able to give him a lead on housing.
Another new referral from the food shelf was helped this week. They needed beds and kitchen things too. The woman was embarrassed to say she needed a can opener. This is something we’ve learned to always ask because when food is coming from the food shelf, a can opener is essential! Praise God that the beds were provided again. Most of our beds come to us without knowledge of the need. Other times we request the need for a bed online and a stranger will call with what is needed. Often they say ” I got over 100 responses for this but I saw you are helping someone who really needs it so I called you back”. That’s God at work, don’t you think?
One of our families was not sure if they’d be homeless or not on the 19th. It’s a long story but basically, the Section 8 landlord has not done the required repairs to make the rental home “legal” for Section 8, even with the deadlines and warnings. The family can not leave or they’ll lose their Section 8 status, which takes years to get, and the lease would be broken which means bad rental history on the record. They were all ready to move to nowhere and then were told the landlord has 60 more days to fix the home and won’t get the Section 8 money until it’s done. This was bittersweet news for the family. They were able to have Christmas in their place but have to live with the disrepair for another two months. We would love to help them with some of the repairs to make the place safer and more comfortable but can’t touch it. Please pray that a new Section 8 property will be located on the west side of town so her children can attend better schools too. The mom calls us her “angels”.
A few weeks before Christmas R&R had an open invitation to “adopt” a family for Christmas. Seven families were served in various ways. Praise God! One family even attended the Christmas service with the family that adopted them! Beautiful! Thank you to all who stepped up and made a difference in someone’s life.
Two Christmas trees were given to two different families that were adopted. One woman was asked if she had everything she needed now (she had nothing a few weeks before and her help from us came gradually due to delivery glitches) and she dropped her head and said, “this will sound selfish cause it’s something I don’t really need but I would really like flour and sugar so I can make my daughter her favorite cookies for Christmas”.
A trip was made to ICA to see if they had any ingredients for cookies. The case worker there whom is a great resource for us personally took a look and found flour, sugar, brown sugar, chocolate chips and baking soda! She said this is very unusual. They rarely have those items because they are perishable. Always an adventure…