Gods Grace after a Family Lost Their House in a Fire

A family of five that go to our church were left homeless on 1 week ago today after fire destroyed their two story home. Randy was at work when he received the phone call that his house was on fire. He was thankful it didn't happen at 2 a.m. so he wouldn't have had the worry of trying to get his wife who is expecting their fourth child in March and 3 children out of a burning house. His wife Carol was out of town for the day and the children were in school and with grandparents. The family was left with the clothes on their backs. A firemen asked if there was anything that they could possibly save and Randy remembered Carol once saying that if they ever had a fire the one thing she would try to save was their photo albums, so two firemen went into the blazing home and took the burning entertainment center out to the front yard and they were able to save most of them.

Randy and Carol have had so many blessings from people since this tragic event, God has surrounded them with loving family and friends and even strangers. Sunday while at church they shared many of the ways God has blessed them, many more than I could mention but here were a few, later that evening when they were at her parents home, a man came in took the jacket off his back and handed it to Randy and said "You need this more than I do " then he left the house. Someone else popped in with enough cash for them to go out to dinner that night. One man called Randy and told him that he has a wood lot and if Randy could find someone to cut the wood that he would need to build a new house that he was more than welcome to it. Their little boy had a tool bench that he really liked and was sad to hear it was lost , someone else stopped in and had a new one for their son who didn't know he had one that was consumed in the blaze. Their 2 1/2 yr old daughter had a little boy come up to her and he stretched out his hand with his favorite teddy bear and offered it to her.

The community rallied together and dropped a truck load off clothes and toys off to them, and our church gathered all the household necessities that you would need for an apartment and drove it to them Saturday.

This family stood at the front of our church today and smiled and thanked God with tears streaming down their faces for having being blessed by such a great Community and Church family. I am so inspired by their faith. If "home is where your heart is" then this family didn't loose their home just their house. Praise God for his mercy and provision. I am so grateful that this family was spared. A story like this certainly makes us grateful for what we have. So tonight I thank God for the roof over our heads and the clothes on our backs.