It has taken a good long while but I'm glad to report it is now finished!

Yes, it did take a while. We did begin in early October and as of the end of last week the final paint has been applied and our home is now officially recovered/restored from the visit Hurricane Ike paid last year. This is the subject I’m stewing about on this Thursday, May 14, 2009. Now I could have said we finished just in time for the new hurricane season but you notice I didn’t say that because saying things like that tend to upset the wife. Our nephew has done a good job in the variety of projects required to get our place back together. And, he has also been able to do a major remodeling project for one of our neighbors. He is a fine Christian man and has been a testimony to them and has become like a regular family member in their home. In short, they have learned to love and respect him. The elder brother in the home who is 68 does a lot of bicycle riding and our nephew has been riding along with him for the past several months. His plan is to load up all his tools and head back to Florida tomorrow morning.

It is good to close this chapter and say one more time how thankful we are to God for seeing us through these many months of stress and difficulty. Our dear Brother Milton who became severely ill while working on our home is continuing his remarkable recovery at his home in Florida. According to top-notch medical advisers, he was supposed to have died several different times. According to the Great Physician he outlived those dire predictions. His physical condition continues to show great progress and promise and they hold forth hope that his short-term memory can also be helped. Last week he began being able to read from a large print Bible. While different ones have read to him over these past several months this was his first time to read it for himself. We were told he would read a while and cry a while, read a while and cry a while. That sounds just like the Milton we’ve always known! I told him when he left here that I believed he would preach again some day and I’m sticking with that belief.

I could throw out perhaps fifty challenging issues we’ve had to confront, deal with, and overcome over these past six plus months but suffice it to say, God is good all the time, all the time God is good! There have been some tears along with much crying out to God but so many times we saw Him do things that became marvelous in our eyes. We’ve garnered many compliments about our perseverance and determination. We’ve been told how strong we must be in our resolve and faith. What we know at the end of this season as we move on to the next, is an understanding that all we are, and all we can be, and all we will ever be able to be, is only because of Him and His grace and mercy towards us. I once heard an interesting illustration where the preacher said Old Testament Israel had taken all of the blessings God gave to them and instead of reflecting honor back to Him for them, they instead showered it upon themselves and they became elevated in their own minds. I pray that God will give us the good sense to properly recognize Him as our Source and as the only One deserving of any and all honor and glory for us making it through this challenge. May God and His Name be blessed and may all who read this take a moment, right now if you can, to thank Him for His help given to us! Amen. …More later.