Home Invasions

I was watching on ABC's Good Morning America this morning about some very scary home invasions around the country where the intruders were shot and killed.

It brought back some very unpleasant memories of the 2008 home invasion at my moms house that my son was a victim of.

Jonathan was 14 at the time and in 8th grade.

A week earlier he had broken his arm at school. It was a serious break and needed 2 surgeries just to get it reset. At the same time, I had come down with a mystery illness that had sent me to the ER  and was recovering at home so Jonathan was at my mom's house being cared for by her while I also healed.

My mom had to go to work for a few hours that day. She worked at the same church I did. It is only about a 10 minute drive. My mom lives on 13 very secluded acres and you don't even see her house from the road. Jonathan was in a bedroom on the computer when he saw a car pull into the driveway and two men step out. 

This alarmed him and he called my mom to see if she was expecting any workers. She said "NO" and told Jonathan to call 911. My mom had a terrible feeling in her heart and immediately left church to rush home to see who was in her driveway. 

Jonathan fumbled trying to call 911 and accidentally called Papa Bud. Papa Bud loved talking on the phone so he was asking Jonathan how was his arm, Jonathan was trying to politely hang up on Papa to call 911 without wanting to scare Papa. 

While this was going on, one of the men had come to the back porch and broke the glass door. He was now inside my moms house. Jonathan heard the glass and got into a closet. He immediately began praying to God for protection. The man had a machete knife and apparently was on a walkie talkie with the other man who was waiting outside in the get away car. 

My mom called my brother in law who lived about 2 miles away for help and Tom drove as fast as he could to get to my moms. Inside the house the man was going thru the rooms when Jonathan heard him say to the man outside via the walkie talkies that he was going to kill my moms dog who was a small dog but was barking in the living room. Jonathan made the brave decision to come out of the closet and as he did he met the man in the hallway

Jonathan was in his pajama bottoms and his arm was in a sling. He had just turned 14 two months before this. But in our minds, God had a guardian angel behind Jonathan. And this burglar saw something other than a small frightened child. Whatever he saw scared the burglar.  I have chills coming over me as I type this because this burglar dropped the knife and RAN as fast as he could out of the house when he saw Jonathan. The men sped away just as my brother in law and mom were pulling into the driveway. They were never caught but a few months later a crime ring was busted in a nearby county and Jonathan was positive it was the same men.

These men could have killed my son. He was alone, he was a defenseless child, he was in a sling and my moms house is so far from any other homes no one would have heard him scream. He was unarmed and the burglar had a machete knife.

But God, we are positive, protected him that day. Jonathan said he was not scared when he left the closet. He had prayed and felt a peace that only comes to you when you are a believer and you trust beyond what words can ever describe.

It was a scary incident but Jonathan is ok. Whenever I hear about home invasions, especially the sad ones where people are killed or hurt by the intruders my heart always will skip a beat and then I immediately thank God for protecting my baby that terrible day in May 2008. 


Jonathan will be graduating high school in 2 months, He has been accepted into Marshall University Pre-Med and he just passed with flying colors the US Military entrance ASVAB test with a score of 85 and may also join the Air Force. I am one proud mommy.

The only thing this burglar accomplished was he made our family even stronger believers in God and we are certain that God has a greater purpose for Jonathan's life.

Prayers for West Liberty

Friday was eerie. It stormed most of the day and there was a lot of  talk in the news that tornado activity was a high probability.

To be honest, I wasn't worried. We live in the mountains.....tornadoes can't pass thru mountains....can they?

We even ate dinner out. Something that is rare with Karsen feeling so bad still.

But on the way home the clouds looked really bad. You could see the storm line and it was creepy.

We got home and turned the news on. Tornado warnings were all around us and Doppler radar had detected a big one just to the south east of us. I have lived in Kansas (when I was 8). I remember all too well the tornado siren in the town of Osage and being led into the "storm closet" in my mom's bedroom.

I have lived in North Carolina almost my entire life and lived thru a devastating tornado in Kernersville in 1989 and one that hit in 1999 10 miles of my house in Clemmons.

I never thought I would see tornadoes in West Virginia!

West Liberty, KY is just to the south east of my town. And they were basically wiped off of the map. My heart aches for those who have lost everything. One woman on the news tonight lost her daughter and mother. My heart cannot even imagine.

This storm also claimed the lives of an entire young family in Indiana. Sadly, the only survivor of the family, a baby girl named Angel, died tonight.

Baby Angel will now be reunited with her baby sister and brother, and I pray her parents.

A friend of mine asked me tonight on Facebook, why does God allow such pain, why do some survive, and others don't?

The best answer that I could muster was this:

God has a purpose for everything and every thing has a reason and purpose. For some, death is how He becomes glorified. For others, living thru pain is how He is glorified. This is where Faith steps in. You have to trust Him in all things, good and bad. For some of us, it takes something bad to turn to God. Whatever the reason, the end is this....in the end everyone dies and it is so important to know where you are going. There is a heaven and there is a hell. Walk with faith, walk by faith and know that He loves you so much. Even the shortest lives on earth are timely in His timing. And the longest lives on earth are just a second when compared to eternity. I once read in a Max Lucado book that in God's plan, every life is long enough and every death is timely. We shall all face death, but thanks to Jesus, we only face it's shadow.

I am so far from being the person I want to be. But I promise everyone, I am trying. Everyday before I go to bed I ask for forgiveness because there is nothing more than I want than to oneday be reunited with my family--Papa Bud-- and hear those words spoken to me, "Good job my faithful servant".

Please remember the people of West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky tonight in your prayers.

On the Move

Well, our dry spell is over.

John was offered not one, but two jobs!

One was in North Carolina, the other--Charleston, WV.

After much prayer, we decided to take the Charleston, WV job offer.

John will begin work in July. In the meantime, me and the kids are headed to NC for some much needed family time. Come July, we will begin looking for a new home in WV and hopefully be ready to move by August.

Believe it or not, I will miss Richmond. The schools here are fantastic. Living so close to the fabric of American History has also been wonderful.

Please keep us in your prayers as we transition this new phase of life.

God is so GOOD!

Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you. Deuteronomy 31:6 NLT

Mark 11:24

John was laid off in April and despite positive feedback from reputable companies like CAT, Liebherr, and other large heavy equipment companies in our area....we haven't been able to land a job.

The job market in the heavy equipment industry is super stressed right now and a lot of companies are down sizing. We have survived this now three other times before. Each time it has set our family back financially substantially. It is a hard climb back when you lose a job, and even after you land a new job, you have your pay slashed by thousands.

The last 2 weeks, John has had the opportunity to interview with 2 great companies. One is in Charleston, West Virginia where my mother in law lives. The other is in Greensboro, NC 15 miles from my hometown. Both interviews went well. Both companies are promising us that we will know something soon.

PLEASE pray one of these works out. Being without health insurance is so scary. Being without a full paycheck is scarier.

As Jesus says in Mark 11:24, "I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you've received it, it will be yours." I am banking on that promise. Please keep my family in your prayers!

It sure won't be easy to move again, especially for my oldest son Jonathan, who will be a senior this year. But you have to go where the money is. And hopefully the money leads us HOME!

Trust

I've been thinking of a song. It brings me a lot of peace when I think about the twists and turns my life has taken me over the past year.

Through many ups, and quite possible the hardest downs I have ever faced, I can still say with confidence that I still place my trust in Christ.

This is the chorus:

In Christ alone,
I place my trust.
And find my Glory in the power of the Cross.
In every victory,
let it be said of me.
My source of strength,
My source of hope,
Is Christ alone.

When faith falls & won't get back up....

This has been an incredibly tough year for me & my family.

Losing Papa, moving far from home and dealing with the economic aftermath that resulted three years ago when John lost his handsomely paid job, my father in law being diagnosed with lung cancer.....its been a tough climb trying to rebound.

By Friday, I felt as though I had bottomed out. Our house has been on the market since 7/31 and no buyers. We even listed it as a short sale but still no luck. If it doesn't sell soon we may lose it. Faced with that news on Friday I just cried. This was my bottom.

While I was raking the leaves in my rented yard, a thought crossed my mind.

I remembered that commercial from the 1980's where the old lady has fallen and she can't get up. I once laughed at that commercial in front of Papa and he read me the riot act. I never laughed at that commercial again.

But on Friday I thought this, my faith has fallen God, and it won't get back up.

Where are you God? Because I am at my end. How much more bad news before I can see a rainbow? My faith is shaken.

And then, as if God knew I needed this, I got an email from a dear friend later that evening.

He made the mistake of asking how I was and I unloaded to him my troubles and pain and how I felt overshadowed by grief and despair.

And my dear friend told me this,

"first off God loves you and has a plan for your life there is no doubt about that, and this tough time is just one of life's wildernesses. A wise man once said to me(that sounded corny)but in the wilderness God separates the saints from the aints and you are a saint Tren, so put your head down and hold fast through this storm it will get better, I promise you".

And then on Sunday while I was again raking, and strangely enough, raking under the same tree where I had my first cry out to God, my rake hit what I thought was a rock.

I brushed away some dirt and pulled out what I thought was maybe a toy. I tossed it back onto the ground. A few minutes later I picked it up and really brushed off the dirt and this was what I found:

A church. A tiny bisque church. Not a toy. Not a yard ornament. What in the world was it doing buried under the stump of a tree?

That was the rainbow I needed.

I am going to try harder to let faith be faith.

I don't expect God to clean up my messes overnight but I do need to fight harder to see the blessings that can come out of such hard times.

I miss Papa. I miss my house, my home, my family and friends. I pray that our home sells soon and I pray for my father in law's healing. These are my storms I am fighting.

Be like the bird that, passing on her flight awhile on boughs too slight, feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings, knowing that she hath wings. ~Victor Hugo