My Friend's House

Many years ago, when I was newly divorced and raising two boys basically on my own, I was able to live through a beautiful picture of the verse in the book of John that tells how the world will know that we follow Christ. It tells us that disciples of Jesus were those who practiced Kingdom living in a way that when people saw them, they took notice. Observers could see with their own eyes a different kind of community. Diverse backgrounds coming together in love. People had a sense of belonging and purpose. Everyone had a part to play, and no one was left out.

I was working two jobs and very involved in my church of Watsonville, California. I had unimaginable support that reflected the type of Kingdom community that was spoken of in the book of John. People came together, each playing their part and I was…the purpose, the reason for their gathering.

From the very beginning I was blown away by the care I received. I remember thinking that I was probably going to be let go from my church office position, since I no longer met a certain “standard” that I had in my head. I had disqualified myself. To my surprise, by pastor gathered the church staff together in his office. Together we told them that my marriage was dissolving. Next thing I know, the pastor started assigning different members to take care of me and walk through this terrible loss. One was assigned to help me with financial planning, another to make sure that I had what I needed to properly continue care for my boys. Others were assigned to check in with me. I went from being horrified by what I was entering to feeling supported and loved like never before.

First, I met with my pastors on how I was going to keep the bills paid. I was not receiving child support and had to take a hard look at my finances. My husband had always taken care of everything financially, so I had a lot to learn. One of my pastors sat down with me and showed me how to look into less expensive car insurance and how to cut back on some of my utilities.

Later, I went to the same pastor telling him that I needed to replace my roof and did not have enough to cover the cost. Like the boy with the loaves and fishes, he asked me what I had to contribute. I told him the small amount I had, and he said that he would take it from there.

Within a short amount of time, there was an event planned at my house on a Saturday. It looked like a makeover team had arrived. Over 30 men came to strip and reroof my roof. Some of them decided that I needed sprinkler system work, and I also needed my front yard resodded. If that wasn’t enough, the wives of these men made it clear that they had lunch prepared to feed all these people and that my job was to not lift a finger and answer questions!

When the truck with sod and a tractor arrived, my neighbors came out to see what in the world was going on at my house. I could see in their faces as they scratched their heads wondering how I could have possibly paid for such an endeavor. Then came the neighbor next door. She was the landlord of the rental next door, and she was dealing with some property damage of her own. She was actually jealous of me and all that was being done for me. She asked me if all this work was free and how I found “these people”? To which I smiled and replied, “These people? They are my church family. They are doing this because they love me.”

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