There's good news...

There's good news...

Ok, I haven't talked about my brothers in a long time... but there is actually some very good news. Remember the sister-in-law that almost died delivering the twins... she had to have 14 whole blood transfusions and spend several days in the ICU. Well, that family has had a lot of bad luck the last couple of years.

My brother John was a professional paramedic, but he had some unknown problems with his spin and it was aggravated by the repetitive motion of lifting patients. He ended up having two back surgeries, a lifting limit of twenty pounds, and enough pain that he has to go for an epidural every six - ten months. Basically he can't be a paramedic. But he doesn't qualify for disability or worker's comp because they can't say the injury was completely work related. So they have been having serious money troubles as he tries to find a new career mid-life.

I try to help them as much as I can, but things were spiraling downward and fast. All along their church (Methodist for those who keep track of these things) has been very helpful. While my SIL was on bed rest and in the hospital people from the church would bring over dinners and help make sure my nieces had rides to and from school when needed. But then someone realized just how bad things were for my brother.

So, this person organized a baby shower for them. They bought all kinds of things that were needed to take care of twins. They also arranged to make sure that my two older nieces would enough presents for Christmas. Then they took up a congregation wide collection for my brother. The church has about 200 lower-middle class families and they collected well over two thousand dollars and money is still coming in.

The church has decided to take half the money and put it in a trust fund to pay my brother's heating costs for as long as the money lasts. When my brother gets a heating bill he just has to turn it into the church and they will pay it out of the trust. The other half of the money will be given to them in the form of gift cards for supermarkets and Wal-Mart (hey I know, but it's cheap).

My brother was so blown away, he was crying as he told me how good his church family had been.

My other brother, David, also has serious financial issues. Both he and his wife are deaf. Because of this their communication and language skills are fairly low. My brother has a pretty low paying job -- and the cost of living in NJ is as high or higher than it is here. They are a family of five living in a two bedroom apartment because that's all they can afford. Again, I do what I can to help them... but I can't support three families.

John started thinking about how David's church hasn't really done anything to help him. I'm a little surprised, too. But he goes to a "deaf church" and the membership is small -- smaller than my church. They're also living with similar money problems. And, the membership is spread out all over the state because there aren't that many deaf churches. So, I could see how it would be harder for them to help David.

Well, John got the bright idea of calling the local Methodist church and telling them about David and his family. Guess what! The local church has decided to take my brother on as a special Christmas project. They are going to give him gift cards for the local supermarket, make sure that my niece has something for Christmas, and that my brother's short term needs are taken care of.

How amazing it that! Isn't it great to be a part of the Body of Christ!!!