Imagine you’ve just gotten a promotion. You’ve moved into your new dream home with your new spouse. Your investments are soaring. You feel like you’re living in a dream come true.
Kerri’s life went from that dream come true to a nightmare.
She and her new husband both got laid off from their jobs. They would spend the next 5 years hunting for work and getting laid off. Again and again and again. Their investments vanished. They were reduced to selling their furniture, dishes, clothes -- anything someone would buy -- just so they could buy food.
Trips to the grocery store would reduce her to tears. She wanted to make a pie for a birthday but couldn’t afford the pie crust, let alone the filling. They lost their new dream home. The strain on the marriage was enormous. She kept praying for stability and peace.
They were 3 days away from homelessness.
Some friends offered them their garage to live in. “It was better than the streets,” she thought.
Kerri did not know her husband was involved with those friends in a life of drugs and deception. Once they were all under the same roof, that involvement increased. The home around her grew violent. She felt trapped and paralyzed with fear.
One horrible day when her husband was away, one of the “friends” attacked her. The other “friend” did nothing to stop the attack. And when her husband came home, he did little to defend her.
She knew she was no longer safe -- in that garage / house or with her husband. She packed a bag and left immediately.
She showed up at the door of an aunt and uncle who took her in while she began to rebuild her life.
Her aunt knew I had been a pastor. She knew that I give out bread every day and help those in need. She brought Kerri to my home to meet me and see the bread I had. My van was brimming with wonderful smelling breads and pastries. I even had a pie she could take for that birthday. All offered freely, with no expectation of return. Only to help someone just like . . . her. I invited her to help herself.
We began talking and I learned something about what she had been through. I invited her and her aunt and uncle to a party I was having at my house. I showed them a crab apple tree that was in my yard. It was so battered and gnarled that it looked like it was dead. I told them that even so, each spring it’s covered with vibrant flowers and bears sweeter fruit because of the bitter winters. And it grows stronger and larger each year.
Kerri got the connection.
She could see that she was like that tree. Maybe she was going through an awfully bitter winter in her life and things really could turn around. Her marriage was over. But God was already answering her prayers for peace and security. She was beginning to see that God would transform her difficulties into something wonderful.
““… all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” – Romans 8:28”
We prayed for Kerri. We helped her find work, a home of her own, a church, and people who care.
“My whole frame of mind is changing. I am becoming more confident and less afraid. I am no longer surrounded by people out to use me, but people who are kind and caring.”
Not only have we helped Kerri, but we help hundreds of people every month by providing food, personal counseling, help and hope.
Right now we need your help to continue providing food for the body and food for the soul to so many hurting and desperate people. Your gift this month will help feed the hungry in body and give hope to the hungry in spirit.
Please consider donating a gift of $25, $50, $100, or whatever you possibly can. You can help someone like Kerri find healing and hope. You can play a part in changing someone’s life.
Thank you, and may God richly bless you!
P.S. Because we could help Kerri, she now volunteers to help others. Your generosity multiplies!