Family of the Month - Part I

The small church that my wife Laurie and I attended in Camdenton, Missouri announced one Sunday that they were starting a “Family of the Month” ministry. Each month a family would be selected, and members of the church would volunteer to do maintenance, mow the lawn, trim trees, paint, whatever was needed. Well, the first family chosen was us. Our house was fairly new and wasn’t really in need of any maintenance such as paint, shingles or yard work etc. We told them that we really needed nothing, and they should pick someone else. But they were adamant. Our friend Wendy who was on the board said the entire team prayed about it, and our name came up. The good news was they kicked off the new ministry in the middle of April, so we figured we’d be off the hook at the end of the month. The first Sunday in the month of May of 2003 was the 4th. We were anxious to hear who their new selection for the Family of The Month was going to be. Unbelievably, we were picked again. They said it wasn't fair that we only got half of the month of April. We pleaded our case again but to no avail. They said they prayed about who the new family should be and again our name kept coming up.

On that same Sunday evening of May 4th our house took a direct hit from an F4 tornado. On the “F” scale used to classify tornados, an F4’s wind speeds are between 207-260 MPH. Ours was estimated at a high F4. The funnel went right through the middle of our house and lifted most everything somewhere else.

As you can see there was virtually nothing was left of a 2-story, 2,500 square foot house. Oh, by the way, we were in the house when it hit. The last house that was hit before ours was destroyed and one of the three occupants died. The house directly across the street from ours; which had no basement, was reduced to nothing more than a bare concrete slab. Both elderly people in the house were killed.

Why were we spared? We don’t know. Only God knows and He hasn’t told us. But just maybe it was so we could share this story to help and encourage someone else.

More importantly, the tornado was just the first chapter of an amazing series of events to follow. Those stories are our High Places. I’ll share those in future posts.

Exactly the same square footage. Adding the front porch and dormers created this mansion.

Job lost everything. And then...

"The LORD restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before." Job 42:10

This was our Job experience

"May the grace of the Lord and the peace that

surpasses all understanding be with you always."

For more stories from Our High Places, click here https://www.ourhighplaces.com/