Celebration Time!







 





 






It’s time for celebrating! Our house is done. Two years after Super Storm Sandy flooded and ruined our home, it is done—all because of Samaritan’s Purse Ministries. 

This Tuesday, November 18th, at 3:00 we will welcome the Samaritan’s Purse staff and volunteers, family, friends and everyone else who wants to share this special time with us. They call it a house dedication. After eleven months of Samaritan’s Purse people devoting their time and energy into rebuilding our home, we have this opportunity to thank them and give God the glory for it all. They will pray a blessing over our home as we pray for every person who came. 

After the storm, we felt discouraged, trying to cling to our hope in the Lord. We had faith that God was in control, but still struggled with how we could ever get back to normal. Then Samaritan’s Purse teams arrived.
Every week a different team of volunteers wearing their orange t-shirts pulled up in vans. They came from all over the country: Michigan, Florida, South Carolina, California, Ohio, and upstate NY, even outside the US--Australia, to name some places. Under staff supervision and instruction, they fixed the entire house—new floors, ceramic tiled bathrooms, new cabinets, new oven and ceiling fans. The list goes on, amazing and humbling. 

Over 100 volunteers have worked on our house. I wish every volunteer was able to come to our dedication, so we could thank them again personally. We did nothing to deserve this awesome gift. It is a perfect picture of Christ’s sacrifice for us. Just because of love and grace. 


Each volunteer and staff for Samaritan’s Purse was part of His answer to our prayers. Our home is more than a home now; it’s where we saw Christ’s love in action! We pray that God blesses them as we have been blessed.



Comments

Laura said…
Beautiful!! My cousin was one that came from Michigan to help! Congratulations and Praise the LORD for Samaritan's Purse!! May you and your family be blessed through this ministry and may you find ways to serve others!
November 19, 2014 at 12:45 PM
Francy Judge said…
Thanks Laura! One of the many blessings from this experience was meeting people from all over the country--awesome people who shined with Christ's love. How wonderful that your cousin would come to help us all the way from Michigan!
November 19, 2014 at 4:54 PM
Sue Arlidge said…
WOW! You give me hope. We also lost our place in the southern Alberta floods, and sometimes it seems bleak. But you're so right - the phenomenal love and support from strangers who came from all over the place is the most amazing gift ever. 16 months later and we're still in temporary housing, but someday I'll be as tickled as you! All the best to you and your beautiful family.
November 20, 2014 at 3:10 PM
Francy Judge said…
Sue--I am so sorry to hear you are still displaced from the flooding. I pray you can get the help needed to get back into your home soon. No matter how optimistic and hopeful you are, it is a trial. I don't know if you read my earlier post "Five Kids and a Flood," but it describes more of what we went through. I'm glad you found some hope in my article. God can take any hopeless situation and turn it around into blessings. I will be praying for you.
November 20, 2014 at 4:31 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

24th Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards ... Book Review

Image
  (On sale at Amazon) Amazon / Randi's Steps Randi's Steps did not win the Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards, BUT...t he judges wrote a wonderful review that I'm thrilled to share. "Randi’s Steps is a beautiful, bittersweet story told by Francie, the little girl neighbor who befriends Randi when she moves in next door. Judge captures a wonderful narrative voice, real and warm and very human. Francie loves having a best friend like Randi, who is different in seemingly tiny ways, like being Jewish, but who loves enough of the same things that Francie loves to make her the best of best friends. I liked the description of Randi’s Tinker Bell laugh with the occasional snort (13). Right away, Randi is described as being subject to headaches, which of course adults will understand. I think Judge conveys a progress of Randi’s illness perfectly. For all that Francie loves Randi, Francie is healthy and in need of healthy friends. She reacts with joy to happy playtim
Read more

24th Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards ... Book Review

Image
On Sale:  Amazon / Randi's Steps Randi's Steps did not win the Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards, BUT... The judges wrote a wonderful review that I'm thrilled to share. "Randi’s Steps is a beautiful, bittersweet story told by Francie, the little girl neighbor who befriends Randi when she moves in next door. Judge captures a wonderful narrative voice, real and warm and very human. Francie loves having a best friend like Randi, who is different in seemingly tiny ways, like being Jewish, but who loves enough of the same things that Francie loves to make her the best of best friends. I liked the description of Randi’s Tinker Bell laugh with the occasional snort (13). Right away, Randi is described as being subject to headaches, which of course adults will understand. I think Judge conveys a progress of Randi’s illness perfectly. For all that Francie loves Randi, Francie is healthy and in need of healthy friends. She reacts with joy to
Read more

Onward Team Mom

Image
2004 2017 When asked if I have kids, I answer yes. They are still my kids even if three of them are in their twenties, and two are teenagers. The Mom feelings haven’t changed much since I felt the first fluttering in my belly and began to worry about their wellbeing. Now that they have survived chewing on Legos, climbing monkey bars, and running around the block playing manhunt (teenage tag / hide and seek,) without too many broken bones, I have new worries as they venture out into young adult life. How will they pay their college loans? Will they drive safely? Will they still have faith in God? I have this gnawing feeling that everything is out of my control now. Probably because it is. When they were young, I could fool myself into thinking I had some control. I shopped for their food, cooked the meals I wanted them to have, and dressed them in the non-designer, hand-me-down outfits I liked. Even at a young age they began wiggling out of my clutches. In my obsessive
Read more