PLEASE READ!!! If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Fight Club, it’s that God called us to be men of action, and not just words. Too much of my life has been spent talking, instead of doing. That changes now. Something that I never do is read the newspaper. I avoid the news; it’s negative, depressing, and many times very biased. But what I hadn’t considered was praying for the situations I read about, and recently I was challenged to do so for a week. Tuesday morning, one of those stories stuck out to me and struck my heart in a very powerful way: Monday night, a family lost their house to a fire... the week before Thanksgiving, and in the middle of winter... and this family now has nowhere to call home. My heart was crushed hearing about this. God told me, “Do something about this!” So I am. I’ve spent a huge chunk of my time from Tuesday until now talking to the fire department to in order to get in touch with the family, and once that happened, talking with the family trying to figure out what their immediate needs are. To give you a little background here; The house was passed down from a mother who passed away, to her son, Erich Lewis who lives with his wife Candice and their four daughters, 16 yr. old Da Na’ (Duh Nay), 14 yr. old Krystyana, 11 yr. old Iyanna, and 7 yr. old Maxine. The utilities were in his mom’s name, and when Erich went to transfer them to his name, he was told that the gas bill was $1,200. He didn’t have the money to pay that, so they shut off the gas. Space heaters weren’t cutting it, so Erich installed a wood burning stove in the house. Monday night, something went wrong with the piping or the flume, and the house caught fire. The fact that it was a very windy night didn’t help matters any. They lost everything. The link for the news article is attached. This family now has no clothes, school supplies, toiletries, bedding, etc. They are in great need. I’m heading up an effort to gather a few basic supplies for this family, and Pastor Jim Brown of Grace Community Church in Goshen has assured me that there will be a spot at Grace this Sunday to collect the supplies so that they can be given to the family. The location in the church will most likely be the kitchen, but I will confirm that with Jim over the weekend and let you know. Please stop by the church on Sunday if you feel led to help this family, or just get in contact with me directly. I’m attaching a file with what their needs are so that you can print it off if you want. I know there are several of you out there with a heart that bleeds to help the people of your community, and to shine Jesus light into people’s lives, so I’m thanking you in advance for what I know you are going to do. Their biggest need however is shelter. They were put up in a hotel for three days (Thursday night being the last night) and have been able to come up with the money for a fourth night, but after that are a little stuck. Today I was notified by Erich that they may have a house that they will be able to rent as of Saturday, but nothing is set as of yet. The biggest obstacle being the down payment of $775. They are talking with the landlord about waving the down payment, or at least paying it off in payments, but nothing is set in stone, and they may need some help there. Erich said tonight, “I’m trying to take care of this so that your friends, God bless them, don’t have to give us any money if at all possible, but I may need the help if the landlord isn’t willing to work with me on this.” I will get you more info as I get it. And a side note: Thanksgiving is next week. I’m asking for a small group of people to commit to providing this family a Thanksgiving Dinner. The list for that will be on its own page in the document. Obviously prayer for the family is something we can all give. So let’s pray for the family hard core over the next week. Thanks Guys, and God Bless. Let’s rock our community! Chris Kueppers Cell - 574-849-3233 elkharttruth/news/crime-fire-courts/2014/11/18/Elkhart-Fire-Department-responds-to-house-fire-on-Cleveland-Road.html
Posted on: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 05:00:34 +0000
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