I was at the property today - just for a few minutes waiting for Jen to get off the schoolbus. She wanted to ride it again - to spend time with some of her friends. She hadn't ridden in it since April 24th.
Although the dumpsters have been taken away - there is still things laying around that need to be thrown out. What we really need is the skidster to come back and scoop up what's left and then - put it somewhere else.
I was looking through some of the ashes - found another spoon (not sure if it's just one of the kitchen ones, or a silver one). I was locked out of the shed - so I couldn't use a hoe or a shovel - so I used one of the golf clubs - well actually it was the shaft. And no leather strapping on it. So it was sort of used to poke through the ashes - and find something to turn over. Amazingly there are still things to find. But nothing worth keeping.
Barry's friend, Jonas - who is also a builder - came out to the property last night to look things over with him. Barry felt good about it after talking with him. Jonas gave him several ideas about building the new house - how to heat it - where to put the bathrooms, etc.
We have a house plan picked out - but Jonas is going to fine-tune it for us. We are excited about the new house. But...
Please keep us in prayer - our bank's "corporate office" was wanting to suspend all of our accounts - it thinks that we are just wanting to take the money and run. (Since we don't have the house for equity). They don't believe us when we say we're going to rebuild. They are holding 2/3 of the structure money from us now. We will need that money to purchase the wood and trusses. Barry is working with the insurance company and the bank to get it all straightened out.
God is good - He is keeping us patient through all of this. Just one trial after the other. God is making sure that we are faithful in everything. We are trying not to get ahead of God. We are taking one day at a time.
Our VBS is next week - I'm the director of it - and so right now - my mind is on that event. But when it is over - I'll be back over to our friends' garage -sorting through the things that were taken out of the house on April 26 and deciding what to keep and what to throw out.
Years ago - I attend a women's retreat and the guest speaker talked about sorting through things. She suggested you get three boxes. One for garbage, one for things you want to keep and one for things you're unsure of. After you clean out your attic or garage or closet - label the two boxes you're keeping for now and throw the other away. Then after a few months, if you haven't needed something out of the unsure box - go ahead and throw it out, too. Cause more than likely, there are things in there you can live without.
This is similar. There are things in that garage that we haven't seen since April 24th or before. Things we most definitely don't need anymore - but some things we need to save - the photos are still in that garage. Other than that - not much is really even salvagable (not that the photos are really either). So - when we (or I) go into that garage after VBS - we will spend some time finding the things we want to keep and not worrying about those unsure items - they can just go. We really don't want to fill our next house up with stuff. We don't know what will happen tomorrow. Maybe it's better not to even have it all in the first place.
One thing we will have is pictures of our family. Our photo friend - Kurt VanTuil - was able to save some of the pics they found in the house and he had them redone and reframed. They are in a closet here (in our rental house) waiting to go home and be hung on a wall. Our new house will be full of love - from people - from God's people when we invite everyone to our house - for cookouts - for volleyball games - for vesper services - for fellowship. I can't wait to fill our house with God's love - throughout it all.
Thanks for your continued prayers.
