Today is the first time for months that sunlight has shown into our garage! Our workers have completed putting in the two sets of doors for the apartment today! They completely tore down the garage door that was broken and built a new wall for the doors. The double doors will be the entry into my mom's apartment and provide sunshine for her! The other door will enter into the 1/3 of the garage storage area for our bikes and tools, etc. We are so thankful to have gotten to walk my mom down to show her the progress. "I like it!" was her response!!
One of the new adjustments for my mom, Anne, is her "Lifeline Pendant". She wears it around her neck and anywhere in our home or yard, she has a way to contact the monitoring agency who can alert us or an ambulance that she needs help when we aren't home.
The Kelly family has a full schedule and this new "lifeline" gives us all a way to know how she is doing even if she is in Story Cottage, our home, alone.
I continue to ponder that Jesus is so responsive to my cries for help. I continue to know that He is never busy or irritated when I need him. When I am in a bog and can't get out. I am more and more aware of my own weakness and His consistently strong response to my needs. Thank you, God, for your merciful responses to me, over and over again.
My mother, Anne, had the eardrum of her left ear rupture when she was under 5 years old. She has never been able to hear out of it, even after extensive surgery in the 1970's. In the last month, God has provided, through a gracious and generous anonymous donor, the $$ needed to buy an Oticon Hearing Aide for her right ear. It also has extensive hearing loss to it. For a couple of weeks now, Mom has been able to hear birds singing and cars passing by and Lacy, our new dog, chewing on her bone. These are Sounds that she couldn't hear before. It has also given her a huge gift in being a more present part of the singles group at CSPC because she can hear what is being said now!
We are so thankful that God has provided this HUGE blessing for her!
We serve a God who is so eager for us to LISTEN to Him! I am thankful our family is learning more about hearing and listening and ears open to His plans (not our own)!
Our new storage barn for all the Kelly family "garage items" was delivered
in late September to prepare for the start of the apartment for Anne.
Packing, Moving & Cleaning out Anne's rental home was completed in the final
6 days of September.
We are so thankful for so many prayers
and help from Matt Casada,
Christine Davis, Ginny, Megan & Nathan Kitner,
as well as Taylor, Trent and Trey Kelly!
"The LORD is far from the wicked but he hears the prayer of the righteous." Proverbs 15:29Because of the righteousness of Christ, God is bending down and hearing our prayers.Because Jesus is interceding for us, and the Spirit is interpreting our groans, we are confident that our prayers are being heard by our God!
As we move toward a start time for construction next week, I continue to ponder what Scripture says about God's heart for widows. As a senior at Bryan College, I wrote a thesis paper on the church's call to care for widows. It is so compelling to continue to see how that call affects my own life in learning to serve and care beyond my own self absorption.
Last week while listening to Chris Tomlin's new CD, Hello Love, these lyrics were a strong call to what I believe God is up to in this season with our family and the men, women and children He has called to be a part of this "outpouring of His Love" to my mother, Anne.
When our hope is hard to find
And our faith is in decline
We need a cause to stand behind - LOVE
We all want the way it feels
Time it comes and time it steals
What remains, what is real - LOVE
[Chorus:] There is love There is forgiveness
There is love in times of need
When life is cold there is a promise
You will never go without... There is love
It heals the sick
Comforts the weak
Breaks the proud
Raises the meek
In this life no guarantees...
Love is the answer
Love will find a way
When we love one another
It's a brighter day The one guarantee that God has given us is that His agenda is to be WITH US. His name is Immanuel. Because He is Love incarnate - Love is the answer. I want to be a woman who keeps on saying HELLO LOVE and I want our family and our home to be open to the reality of the unfailing LOVE of God to sustain us!
The LORD will tear down the house of the proud, But He will establish the boundary of the widow.
- Proverbs 15:25
What a JOY that we serve this MIGHTY CARPENTER KING! He is establishing boundaries for Anne, a widow in need!!
In late September, he protected her as 2 men attempted to rob her on a Sunday afternoon in her rental home! We are so thankful that He has again protected her life! Our family moved rapidly to care for her and get her into a more secure place immediately. Although we had not planned on moving her out of her home until her apartment at STORY COTTAGE was finished, God had other plans.
Rhonda Turner, my sister-in-law hosted my mom for a week while Damon and I packed, moved and cleaned my mother's rental home. We are temporarily hosting my mother in a twin bed sharing a room with our youngest son, Trey.
God is using the CK Construction group under the leadership of Sid Kemp, to turn our garage into an efficiency apartment for my mother.
Many of you are praying and giving and supporting us through this endeavor and we are overwhelmed with gratitude! We wanted to have a place where we can "Remember & Tell" all that God is up to and all the ways He is providing and establishing boundaries for Anne Johnson.
"For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt. Fear the LORD your God and serve him." - Deuteronomy 10:17-20a
Over 23 years ago, God began giving me a glimpse of what it means for Him to be a defender of the cause of the fatherless and the widow, when my father, Jimmy Johnson, died of Lymphoma cancer at 49 years old. Over the last 2 decades I have watched God providing for and directing my own steps as well as my mother's, widowed in her 40's, in amazing ways. During these last 2 decades I have seen the way scripture calls me to care for my mother as one of the highest calls to serve the Lord.
In 2003 when my family moved back to Knoxville, TN, after being away for 5 years, God also called my mother, Anne Johnson, to leave Dallas, TX , and move to Knoxville. At that time she lived with us, temporarily, for what ended up being 1 1/2 years. In late 2004, God provided a small rental home for her and she lived there until late September of 2008.
During 2008, God has been leading our family to care for my mother as she has been diagnosed with a condition called Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH). In late July, her neurosurgeon let us know that she would need assisted care for the rest of her life. Damon and I made a decision at that time to open up our home, named STORY COTTAGE, to make room for my mother to permanently live with us.
As we prayed and considered this call to "defend the cause of the widow" we knew that God would stretch us all in many ways. We knew that it was an impossible task that God would have to equip us for. We knew that we didn't have the financial resources that it would require. We knew that God would have to raise up intercessors for our family.
We are seeing God do all these things!
We are thankful that we are getting to experience firsthand what James declares in chapter 1 verse 27: "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
