|
Post by Tammy on May 4, 2008 16:39:07 GMT -5
Perhaps all these preparations and delays will spare you a potential disaster! Praise God for the things that don't happen to us. We'll never know...
|
|
|
Post by allglorytogod on May 9, 2008 0:04:11 GMT -5
Dear Family
How are things going with house ?
|
|
|
Post by benshelpmeet on May 15, 2008 11:26:56 GMT -5
Dear brethren,
We went to the property on Tuesday May 5th, ( Ben's schedule for the entire week was full, except Tuesday was blank...now that's the Lord! He was so glad to be able to take the day off and come to the property .)
The men did a great job! A friend had raised $700.00 for our plumbing, and got some electrical wire donated from a electrician friend, another brother payed over $700.00 out of his debit card to purchase additional materials on Tuesday, he told Ben he did not want us to have to use our Lowe's charge card. We were so thankful, because we did not have that kind of money to be able to pay back in one month. We just wept at the goodness of the Lord toward our family. It is so humbling. Eph 3:20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
The same brother who bought the extra electrical materials also purchased our garden soak tub, tub/shower, and shower, almost $1,000, he said were almost out of money. I'm not sure what money he is talking about..maybe he got together some funds.
It is so exciting to see the Lord at work. We needed a home and we had no money, we prayed and committed it to God. He led us to search for a house and land, with no money to put down. My grandmother became ill and had to sell her big house and move back home near her sister, she gave us $10,000 when her house sold, this was months into our search for land with no for seen funds coming available. It was very unlikely that she would give us a penny,she is tight with her money. It was the Lord. The way he provided the land was a miracle too. Ben wanted a private piece of land, with a hill or a holler or a church or a grave yard to separate us from neighbors, because we do not want to have to look at their immodesty or share their music preferences, we enjoy our privacy, (we like our neighbors and they like us but we do not live close enough to get irritated. With a large family that is nice, we can safely let our children go out and play and there are no negative influences. We rent a small 114 year old farm house on 15 acres of land. It's been nice. ) The Lord gave us a great deal on 12 1/2 acres, it is a ridge top, all the land surrounding our ridge top is a wild life refuge ( no trespassing signs everywhere), in the front of our property we have a grave yard, and a church (an old, well kept,Nazarene church), then in front of that is a hwy, not a main heavily traveled one, just a cut across country hwy. It use to be two squiggly lanes that wound through the hills and hollers, but the state cut a straighter wider hwy with two lanes, two going up and one going down, with a turn lane, and two nice big shoulders as big as a lane. This hwy separated some family land that was attached to our new land, and there were some hurt feelings, the land was sold to us for a very good price $45,000, they were asking $55,000, we could only get a loan for 45,000, they excepted our offer. The property is developed with a 1,000 gallon septic tank, it is fenced, it is half cleared, half woods, it has a 30x32 oak fairly new barn, with a loft and tack room, we have city water and electric, the church even has a fire hydrant which is a plus, we even have an orchard with apple, pear and peach trees, their may be more types were not sure yet. We purchased the Land April of 2005.
We had no other funds to build or put some structure on the land to live in. Our friend an ex- Mennonite told us we should build by faith. The Lord confirmed in our hearts that we should trust Him and go forward by Faith, so we did. This might sound crazy or far fetched to some, but we are living testimony of the goodness and power of God.
We call our house the house that Jesus built. We are amazed at how the Lord orchestrates every faze of the building of our house, often we feel stressed and unsure, we even begin to fret and worry, then were reminded by our kind heavenly Father that we are to rest in Him and trust Him to build our house...because it is the house that Jesus built. Humanly speaking this is a crazy adventure, almost impossible to accomplish, but spiritually speaking....Luk 18:27 And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. God is our very present help in time of need. We needed a home, our land lords want to sell this property that we are renting, we did not know that four years ago when we felt prompted by God to search for land, without any money to purchase. We should always be listening to the promptings of God. We cannot rent because rent is so high and no one wants to rent to a family of 10, we live on one income, and we do not take government help, if thats what you call it. We believe God is our help. We walk by faith not by sight. That is not always easy to do, because the flesh sees the storm around us and often frets, but Father gently reminds us to take our eyes off of physical facts and put our eyes on Him and to trust Him when things do not make since.Our Amish friend and brother told us that one of the brothers builds cabinets for the church members wants to build our cabinets, he said their not fancy but they are sturdy and look nice. He said they will not cost us much. How exciting!
Also another Mennonite brother from another community said we can get metal siding screws and all for our house through his Mennonite boss for $1,300, thats a great price, I believe the brother who put on our roof spent $2,300 something. He must be selling it to us for cost or maybe paying for some of it.
We are not sure how the Lord will provide the money for cabinets, siding, attic fan, paint, interior doors, flooring, attic access, etc but we do put our trust in the Lord to work out every detail and to provide our needs.
We have decided to use an all house attic fan , instead of central heating and air, we are going to have wood heat( our wood heater is shot, we need to get a new one before next winter), we are going to use Linoleum flooring ( we want to use safe products in our home and keep as many chemicals out of the building process as possible. We want to eventually switch over to solar and a well for water, we have a spring coming out of our mountain. Our house has 18 windows, great air flow, the attic fan will be great!
The men are suppose to come back next week and finish the electric and water and put in the tubs and showers. Then we will call for an inspection. Please pray we pass inspection.
Blessings to you all!
Oh I forgot to say, I think it is a blessing from God to save us money... that our friend that is loaning us money cannot give more money at this time, the Lord has been providing free materials that we do not have to pay back, that lessens the loan. This is a blessing in disguise. The man loaning money is not worried about his company because he has plenty of work lined up, but the weather has just been too wet to do cement work. He a sweet brother and a good man ( a Baptist) to loan us money with no strings attached at no interest. Precious brother and friend to our family, greatly used of God...in the building of the house that Jesus built.
Love ~ sister Darlene ~
|
|
|
Post by allglorytogod on May 15, 2008 20:38:27 GMT -5
Dear Family ... praying for you and house
|
|
kscarle
Member
Philippians 4:4, Romans 12:1, John 14:15
Posts: 97
|
Post by kscarle on May 15, 2008 21:33:20 GMT -5
I read in another post you were waiting to plant a garden till the house was done...I pray it will be soon
|
|
|
Post by glenda on May 15, 2008 21:50:41 GMT -5
God is good he is and will take care of your needs. That includes building you your home.. Look at what he has done so far.. Where the world would say there is NO way God has made way for.. We will keep your family in our prayers on this. I know that God has special plans for your family. And think of the faith building that is going on with the children as they see God building this home. god bless glenda
|
|
|
Post by Andrea on May 27, 2008 15:47:41 GMT -5
I enjoy reading the updates on your house. What a blessing! I've been praying for you all.. I even had a dream about you all over a week ago about you and your new house. ..
|
|
|
Post by Brother Ben on Aug 6, 2008 7:35:09 GMT -5
I thought I'd give a little update. We have passed "rough-in" inspection on the plumbing and electrical. The men from the Amish community came yesterday and did all of the insulation and sheetrock. It was amazing. They will come back to do corners, and trim (sheetrock.) It looks more like a house now with actual walls and ceilings!
Ben
|
|
|
Post by Andrea on Aug 11, 2008 17:15:32 GMT -5
Praise the Lord, Bro. Ben. You all continue to be in my prayers.
|
|
|
Post by benshelpmeet on Nov 24, 2008 16:50:27 GMT -5
Aug 12th the men came back and put on the metal corner pieces and another layer of mud. Aug 19th they came and put on more mud Aug 26th they came and sanded the sheet rock seams. Aug 28th - Sept 5th we painted on the primer then the paint, upstairs and down stairs. Sept 18th the men came and sanded the floors, and they showed us how to paint on the first coat of polyurethane. Sept 22nd - 24th some men in our new community here called the Volunteers for Christ ( they are retired men from Baptist, Methodist, Nazarene, Presbyterians churches who donate their time to help do odds and end projects in our community). Over a year ago before we were robbed a friend introduced us to them and they asked how they could help us, we said we need a chicken coop built. They came and brought all the wood, tin, old windows, new chicken wire, hinges, everything was donated from people in our community. It was such a blessing! Words can not express. They did such a fine God honoring job, they built us a 8x14 chicken coop with 12 laying boxes, 5- 8' roosting poles, and a door and 3 windows, it's very nice. Thank you Lord! Oct 18th Ben with the help of our oldest daughter built our upstairs pantry shelves. They did a great job. Ben builds excellent shelves! Oct 23 The man came and put in our cabinets and counters ( they built them and they are beautiful!), light switch's and covers, Electric plugs and covers, trim, commodes, sinks, they ired most of the breaker box, they framed in the windows. Oct 28th the men came back and they finished the trim, made cabinet doors for pantry and linen nook, the put in interior doors. Oct 30th they finished breaker box. Oct 31 the electric inspector came and passed the electric! I went down and paid 200.00 for the electric co. to hook up our electric to the house...no more temporary pole and extension cords...Praise the Lord! Nov 1st we went to the Amish community in Ethredge Tn, and we picked out our wood heat stove which is a cook stove. It's called Bakers Choice. Brethren from Va sent us a lg love offering to help us purchase a wood stove, they sent 1,168.00 the day after my great Aunt sent us 150.00 for our Christmas to be spent on the house she said. So we had enough for a ''Bakers Choice.'' It's a nice stove and will do us well. It will hopefully be in by Dec 19th. It's being shipped from Canada! We are so thankful for their loving kindness. Nov 3rd the Codes inspector came and passed us! He said we had to go pay a 25.00 fee for one too many inspections and we could pick up or CO (certificate of occupancy). Nov 4th we went paid the fee and picked up our CO!!! Nov 4th we also got our Electric hooked up to the house. Nov 5th we started moving in and setting up house so to speak. We made and are still making trips back and forth to the barn, we are going through all our belongings. Nov 6th 2 brothers and a sister came and picked me up and we went to our storage in Murfreesboro where we had all our furniture. They and another family met us there and helped us move it all in our new home. What a wonderful day that was. Every day is wonderful! I'll never get over all the Lord has done for us and will continue to do. Nov 9th after church we dedicated our home to the Lord every room, closet , porches and land included. It was a precious time for our whole family, a time of great thankfulness, praise and happy tears were shed for Gods Mighty Goodness. Nov 19th We got a call from a brother in the next town he said he was having a dump truck of oak and poplar pieces delivered from a pallet company in his town. Wow! Truly a surprise and a tremendous blessing! Nov 20th we got another call from the men in our community The Volunteers for Christ. They had cut some trees down for someone and had almost 2 ricks of wood for us they brought it over and stacked it neatly for us. My oldest daughter exclaimed! ''All this wood and our wood heater is not even here yet...Is'nt the Lord good!'' Dear Friends,
Thank you all for all your love and prayer support and precious encouraging letters in the mail that were sent to encourage me through the hardship and sickness. God is faithful to carry us through. Thank you Lord!
I can hardly believe we are living in our home. Tears of Joy! God knows all we've been through. He is Faithful to provide for His children. His timing is best. We have learned so much and still have so much to learn.
I've been without a computer for 6 months and it's good to be able to get back on this site again. Bro. Ben was able to get on line at work and post, that was a blessing. We are thankful for Gods provision.
Alot has happened in the last 6 months... We lost our baby, 8 wks pregnant ( our first miscarriage ) We Praise the Lord who is all knowing, who saw fit to take baby Smith home early. We do miss our precious unborn child, but the Peace of God fills our hearts and lives. God is so good, He's the God of all comfort who walks with us.
We were robbed, had to leave our home (totally moved and sold our horses and goats within one week) to secure the property in Columbia Tn where we were building. Hardship upon hardship followed but we made it through to the other side, and are now enjoying a normal existence. We have all gotten good training for the Mission field. Priceless it is. God is faithful!Psa 119:71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes. Psa 73:28 But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works. Love, ~ sister Darlene ~
|
|
|
Post by SisterNancy on Nov 28, 2008 18:42:25 GMT -5
AMEN!
|
|
|
Post by benshelpmeet on Dec 3, 2008 14:29:06 GMT -5
Dear sister Nancy,
Thank you for the encouraging Amen. I have been on cloud 9 for over a month, I do not think I will ever come down.
God is so abundantly good to us. We have waited for so long and have done without normal things most people take for granted. I call it missionary training. Most all the Missionary's I know do not suffer or do without too much. Some that I know in Africa do rough it though. We would love for all our children to go to the mission field and serve the Lord. The Lord has taught us all so much and there is so much more to learn.
Yesterday some men came ( the ones who built our house) and they installed our old wood heater to last us until our new nice cook/wood stove comes. It has gotten down to 18 degrees and we have managed ok with electric heaters 2 electric heaters have died on us we had to buy another, we could not afford 2, actually we had to buy this one by faith, we still owe for it, but the Lord is faithful to provide, I am learning this. He has been so good, we are shocked at times how the Lord comes through for us in our times of need which are many.
Thank you for your prayers during all this building project which has taken almost 4 years. We feel very blessed, beyond compare.
Love, ~ sister Darlene ~
|
|
|
Post by benshelpmeet on Jan 9, 2009 10:59:10 GMT -5
Dear Friends,
Great news! Our wood cook stove has arrived and yesterday it was delivered and set up by our Amish friends. We have to cook a slow fire in it for a few days as to not warp it. It is very cold (26') here right now, but we are keeping warm enough. I have a pot of water boiling on the stove to create some warmth , and our 3 Southern windows in our living room bring in solar heat.
We have one more day of wood to burn and then all 4 1/2 ricks of wood is all burned up. Thats alot of wood to burn in such a short space of time. Our old stove had cracks and drafts and it burned full force all the time, we could not damper it down. It would get so warm in our house we'd have to open windows. It even warped the floor above the wood stove.
Needless to say we are so thankful for our new tight stove. Bro Ben does not have to get up in the middle of the night anymore to stoke the fire so it wont go out. Our new stove will heat the house and we can also cook and bake in the oven (three loaves of bread at a time.) We are so blessed to have such a nice stove. If the electric ever goes out we can do everything we need to do with this stove, we can even can on it.www.woodstoves.net/newbaker.htmWow! look at that price...We only paid 1,322.49 (tax included) for our stove and warmer box. (we did not get the water reservoir because if the boil dry they can crack, most of our Amish friends do not prefer them.) We only paid 130.00 for our warmer box and it fits perfect and looks great! I can hardly wait to bake in it!
Yesterday we went to the Lumber mill down the road and took out 12 foot double axle trailer to pick up a whole bundle of slabs of wood, it was so heavy you could feel the load. It is all hard wood (good fire wood) These slabs are inches thick and about 12 feet long all bundled together with metal strips. It filled my trailer from side to side and the length too, it sticks up about 2 1/2 feet above the side boards. This is alot of wood. They sell this for 10.00 a bundle. That's a great deal. Ricks of wood are selling for 35 to 40 dollars a rick. (a rick of wood is 2ft wide by 4ft tall by 8ft long of chopped hard wood.) When Ben got home from work he took the chain saw and cut the slabs into chunks. He just put a dint in the pile, there is alot of wood. We are so thankful for this good wood.
I hope you all are having a great week. It is suppose to snow here tomarrow... How exciting! We do not get much snow here, so we love it.
Love, ~ sister Darlene ~Note: Our brethren friends from Virginia took up a love offering for us back in Oct. They sent 1,068.00 we were going to buy our cook stove with it. My grandmother's sister Myra Nell sent us 300.00 for a house warming gift. That gave us 1,369.00 to purchase the wood cook stove, so we ordered it , they said it would not be in until December or January. In November we got a Home Depot bill for 288.00 a and a Lowe's bill for 179.00 ( these are lumber and building stores where we by faith charge needed items to finish our house) and our insurance came due for 126.00. When our credit bills come we pay them in full. We had already ordered the stove and these bills came and were due so we used the money to pay the bills, we were short the funds needed to buy the stove when it arrived. We prayed hard for the Lord to provide. My mother and grandmother are poor but they had been saving to come for a visit from Florida for Christmas. My grandmother (Nana) was unable to make the trip because of her health so Mama decided to send me the 500.00 dollars they had saved up to come for a visit. She said it was a house warming gift and to use it to buy my stove! God is so good to provide when we need it. My mother struggles to just buy groceries, she doesn't have money for house repairs. This is a ''very big thing'' for her to send this money. I am truly thankful for her loving sacrifice. God is so good.
|
|
|
Post by Andrea on Jan 12, 2009 13:46:54 GMT -5
What a blessing, Sis. Darlene. Praise the Lord.
|
|
|
Post by benshelpmeet on Jan 13, 2009 16:11:35 GMT -5
Dear Andrea,
Pray we stay warm. The temp is suppose to drop to 7' Thursday. It's in the upper teens right now and it feels a little nippy inside, no need for a sweater though. Outside it is bitter. Burrr.
We are thankful either way.
Bro Ben is going to install floor vents this week end, maybe that will bring the heat upstairs better.
Blessings, ~ sister Darlene ~I am adding this post I made to the sisters on another thread because it is a thorough account of some of the happenings in our life the past 10 months. I'm trying to compile all the facts in one area for Ben and I to reference back to.Dear sweet sisters who have prayed for me,
I just found this. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am out of the thick of the sickness I think.
I thought I was going to die. I suffered for months ( I still have the problem) with what I thought was Kidney pain. I came down with a respiratory virus and had a really bad cough for over 6 weeks, it was awful! At one point I think I had pneumonia.
Then I was in an accident, well almost a bad wreck, Ben slammed on the breaks so hard my bottom left the seat and my forehead hit the visor, I heard my neck crack! Then I was in bad pain all over for days and had to go to the chiropractor. I'm still suffering from that daily.
Then I got a really bad stomach virus ( I guess that's what it was. ) I laid in the floor of the bathroom on a pallet, with a port a potty next to me for 5 days. I had bad problems. I was so weak. I even quit eating and was passing upper GI blood and bile. I thought I would die, I'm surprised I didn't. I decided to just ride it out and not go to the doctor because I had quite a few Dr. visits and a ultrasound and spent quite a bit of money that we didn't have, and they found out nothing profitable to help me with my kidney pain. ( I'm still suffering from that.)
The Lord brought me through the stomach virus, now all I deal with is my new neck and back pain, and my poor kidneys.
As for our camping out experience we fought the elements in many ways, cooking with an extension cord on our front porch, we washed dishes in two dish pans. During the rainy days it was really hard to cook and wash dishes.
Our covered front porch became our living room where we hung out during the day , around 4 each day the mosquito's would come out. Yikes!... and the scratching would start up.
So many things went wrong, our refrigerator and freezers defrosted from he immense heat, they were all 4 running off of 30 Amps and couldn't handle it. We lost lots of food.
Our spices got damp. we had to wash clothes in the middle of our yard in direct sun, rain , you name it... We had close mold from piling up on rainy days until we learned to just wash them and hang them out in the rain.It was so hard on my poor girls and I. ( we were washing for 9 people ) Poor Bro. Ben had to tough it at times with his work clothes damp, or wearing the same pants twice. I felt so bad for him.
We had chiggers, mosquito's, and tick bites so bad we scratched our legs and arms raw, we still have the scars. One night a mosquito bit my little girl and her eye swelled shut. We had bee stings numerous times.
I ended up twice with a severe heat rash, it was so hot I took two and three showers a day.
We moved to our property because we got robbed on May 25th 2008, my oldest daughter helped me pack up our rental house of 11 years and the farm and sell our 9 goats and 2 horses in just 5 days.
As soon as we moved to our property our friends delivered us a travel trailer, the water heater broke the first week and we had to take cold showers...burrr About 1 month after we moved the pipe in the trailer broke and then we had to bathe in the hose after dark with absolutely freezing cold water! We let water heat up in jugs in the hot sun for the children to take baths in a #3 tub. (that was an ordeal, filling all those jugs.)
We camped out on the floors on pallets, brother Ben had to sleep on an old van seat (with a chair for his feet and a chair beside him for his arthritic shoulder. Because of his arthritis he could not get up and down off the floor, we bought tents and the weather ruined two of them. Money...money...money! We were constantly spending money... Roughing it is expensive, we had constant needs, but I can say the Lord carried us through, all our needs got met.
We have a nice out house but it was sort of hard on us at night because our batteries would run out or we would misplace the flash light.
Once the shower was installed, even before our walls were up we hung tarps in the house and took showers...that was great! The water was still freezing though, it would take your breath away.
My girls would take turns going back and forth to the barn toting a round laundry basket full of the items we needed from the barn which was 200 feet away from the cooking area. Sometimes they would forget an item and have to run all the way back to the barn to get it. After a while it got hard on them and began to wear on their good nature and willingness to serve their family. They would begin to bicker and say can't she go this time, then the next girl would want the next one to go. It was so hot, we thought we would parish, I've never sweat (not perspired) so much in my life. And the funny thing is I didn't loose a pound.
These type of situations try the soul. After about 3 months my girls broke, no one wanted to help do anything, they became fussy, I honestly did not know what to do. I prayed hard for my precious girls ( the three oldest ) the other children never missed a lick, they didn't seem to mind all the hardships, not even the bug bites. My girls were actually strengthened by all this, I know they have learned to be thankful in all things. We have learned so much about ourselves and suffering. I have left alot of details out, I cannot remember everything.
These are actually all fond memories now that it's all over. We are so thankful we made it through to the other side alive and well.
Love, ~sister Darlene ~
|
|