Our “Faith House” Project
The Lord has given us a year to get everything in order and have enough money saved up to actually pay our closing costs (this Friday!--hopefully). Praise the Lord! There are so many people and things we have to be grateful for--I am sure we will miss some as I try to recap. First, we will start by acknowledging the Lord and His direction. We believe with all of our hearts that He has called us to this move and He has answered so many prayers and filled so many needs I wish I had kept a detailed list. We know that He prompted us to trust Him as we have pursued this project. We still cannot fathom all He has planned for us but we know He has a plan. We know that He is the One who orders our steps and He is the One who has sustained our faith and commitment to this journey. If He had not been there for us, we would have thrown in the towel and walked away many times. We have experienced disappointment, fear, lack of faith, anxiety, and weariness. However, we have seen God’s hand at work in so many ways as He has granted us more faith and more strength which comes only from Him. He has continued to give us hope to continue moving forward even when we couldn’t understand how it all would work out. So again, we say “Blessed be the Lord, God Almighty!” for He is worthy to be praised and exalted above all. We are also so thankful for all of our Christian brothers and sisters who have prayed for us throughout this process--we know that your prayers have gotten through and we are stronger because of you and your commitment to love and pray for us.
Next, I must take the time to thank my sisters and brother for their awesome patience as we have worked on our “Faith House”. Without your patience and generosity, our “Faith House” journey would not have even begun. We were especially blessed by Angie and Tim’s talented workmanship: They have invested many hours in painting and laying floor tile and wall tile among several other tasks from our things-to-do list. They even custom-built doors for the new storage cubby in the master bedroom! So grateful for them and their willingness to join their hearts and hands with ours to get stuff done. Then, we have been so grateful for Marsha and Jim’s patience, advice and counsel in helping us arrange work permits and finding dependable and experienced workers for our various projects. They have been such a blessing!
Then we must take the opportunity to thank some precious neighbors: Mike Gilliam, our sweet cousin, has been a special blessing. First of all, I am so grateful for the love and support he showed to Daddy over the years. He was there for Dad when we couldn’t be there. Mike continued to honor Mom and Dad’s memory by supporting us in the clean-up of the property and helping to install the drain lines for the guttering. We really appreciate all Mike has done for us. Then there is Chuck and Rhonda Lindsey and their girls - they were so loving and supportive of Dad over the years. We could never repay the kindness and generosity they showed to Dad. We are so grateful for Chuck as he continued to mow the property and kept an eye on things that first year after we lost Dad. We finally starting getting “our ducks in a row” with the help of the Lord and was able to start doing our own mowing last season. Again, we are beyond thankful and feel so blessed to have such awesome neighbors.
Along this journey, the Lord has sent others to support us in getting the real work done. With Marsha and Jim’s assistance, we were able to contact our cousin, Jerry Joyner, to get the new basement walls put in and to get the basement floor poured. What a difference that made--it looks so awesome! Jerry was so persistent and figured out how to do what needed to be done. So thankful the Lord used him to bless us. Then there is Larry Anderson, a precious friend from church. He is so talented!. He was able to replace the support beam that had us so worried--he did an excellent job. The Lord brought Larry to us just after Ed broke his shoulder. So Larry stepped in and did so many projects for us--guttering, moving the basement steps & door, plumbing and our bathroom remodel. What a blessing! And just at the right time! Larry did an awesome job and we are so grateful for everything he did for us.
The Lord has met so many needs along this journey. We would have to say His healing of Ed’s shoulder has been the most precious. It did not look good but the Lord came through in such a mighty way--but how could we have doubted? He IS the Great Physician. And He has provided the money to pay all of those medical bills too--the last payment was this month! So Blessed!!
Last summer, the Lord led us to a great deal on a riding mower and it continues to serve and bless us this year. We have found many of God’s blessing at the Holston Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Kingsport--we found light fixtures for several rooms, wood trim, curtain rods, great wooden doors for the master bedroom closet just to name a few. We are continuing to visit the store anticipating our next great find. Lowe’s has been our “go-to” store for almost everything else we have needed from our guttering to the steel support posts to sheetrock and paint. We found great deals on our kitchen floor and wall tile among other things. Wow! We have spent a lot of money there this last year! The Lord has provided everything we have needed plus some.
What a journey so far! We are incredibly blessed and grateful to the Lord for all that He has done and we are anticipating great things in all that He plans to do with us in the future.
Ephesians 3:20-21 “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
