Help, Help!

           Have you ever needed help for a particular need and you received the following response from your friends – nothing?  Or more likely – "I'm praying for you."

          During the past two months we have had some needs. Dianne had knee replacement surgery and since I am not driving now, we found ourselves isolated without any transportation for needed appointments.  But with the help of two of our assistant pastors, an elder and family members, we were able to schedule 14 trips.  While this was a tremendous help, I only had to cancel two doctor appointments.

          We were also able to get help planting flowers twice and another neighbor helped us get our newspaper every morning.  Several family members helped by bringing us our mail when they were in our neighborhood. Meals came from Meals on Wheels.

          But what I really missed was the fellowship of friends, especially those from church.  However, I did have some when our pastors provided transportation for us.  That was really appreciated.  And our family did visit and call regularly.  Two women from church also called and a group from church wrote regularly.  That was appreciated.  There is nothing like visits from friends when you are isolated at home.

          The biggest surprise came when our oldest son took an early retirement from the bank.  He discovered several things that needed to be done at our house.  First, he found several shelves of outdated cans of food that were in our basement which we hadn't been able to access for months.  He got rid of all of them for us.  Then he cleaned out our basement freezer which we also had not been able to use for months.  Threw out those old items.  Then he located cans of old paint which he took out to the landflll for us.

         But he wasn't done yet.  He had a dumpster delivered to our house and he and his brothers and our grandson spent hours cleaning out old materials from our garage and basement.  A whole dumpster was filled and there is enough left for another load.  When my wife is well enough to do steps again, they will take her down to continue this work.  Unfortunately, I doubt that I will ever be well enough again to join them, but much has been accomplished – unexpectedly.

          But, as I've been saying, God has been good to us.  And despite our problems, He is still taking care of us and providing what we need, when we need it.  He responds to our pleas for help in His time!