Hey friends!
So about a week ago, my squad and I returned from Foley, Alabama where we volunteered with Samaritan’s Purse to help with disaster relief from Hurricane Sally! This was such a MAJOR blessing as it was our first time in 2 months being able to leave campus in Georgia! And man, did God make it a sweet time for us!
So this is me, wanting to share one of my favorite moments with you all 🙂
During our second and last week in Alabama, we had the chance to meet the lovely Miss CD. Her home was one of the worst we had seen so far. When our van first pulled up, there was part of a billboard covering her roof and tree limbs everywhere. She told us that when the hurricane hit, a tree had fallen on her roof right where her bedroom was. The ceiling caved in so much, she had barely enough room to crawl out of her bed before she would’ve been crushed. Just hearing this was pretty heart wrenching. But even after telling us this, she had such a fun and joyful spirit to her that I knew I needed to hear more from!
And on that note, we started tarping her roof and cutting trees, carrying out the tree limbs, and raking. A few people on my team covered the hole where her septum tank sat, which she had to manually fix herself because the plumbing company kept canceling on her. So get this, for at least 3 weeks she was driving to the gas station everyday just to use the bathroom- and as she put it, “It’s especially hard when the gas station is closed but it’s 4 am and you have to pee”.
She also said that her laundry room was pretty damaged due to the mold growing in it. However after about an hour in that room, we told her we couldn’t work on it anymore because it was too dangerous. This left our whole team feeling pretty distraught, and felt even worse for her. After giving her this news, Sarah and I sat and chatted with her a bit and heard a lot about her life! Hearing her story, I was amazed by how much she had gone through in life yet still had the most joyful and loving heart. I told her I so admired her outlook on life and it was quite honestly, very inspirational. And guess what she said: “It’s all the Lord! Without Him, you have nothing. Material things don’t matter. The Lord has given us this life and with that so much joy!”
Yeah. A remarkable woman I’m telling you! What she said reminds me of the verse in Daniel 3:17-18 where Shadrach, Meshach, & Abednego tell Nebuchadnezzar that God will rescue them from the blazing furnace, but if not, He will still be good. A sweet reminder, but also a hard one.
Anyways when we finish a house, Samaritan’s Purse gives a bible to every homeowner which we get to write in and present to them! She was so touched by the Bible and told us this all meant the world to her. We said we were so sorry we couldn’t do everything she had hoped for with her house and of course, as only she would say, “No. You all have done everything I could’ve asked for and more. Thank you.”
I’m not crying, you are. And like our team leaders said the goal is yes of course to finish the job and clean up the damage, but most importantly it is to love and listen to the homeowners, just like Jesus would. And after all this we ended our time with her lovely granddaughter spraying pink hair dye on all our heads 🙂
And yes, absolutely I have more amazing stories to share! There were just too many to include! If you want to hear more, please ask me! You can email me at [email protected] or text me at (719)464-6672!
But I’ll leave you with this, go love and listen to your neighbor because they may just have a really cool story and perspective on life 😉 And maybe in your own day to day life, keep an eye out for the goodness of God and His unfailing love that he reveals to you when you take a closer look 🙂 Because even in the midst of all the hard of life, He will still be good.
Thanks for reading! Hope you have a blessed rest of your day!
Lots of love,
Camille
