Yesterday was a day full of activities with my neighbors. Some planned, some unplanned.
Neighbors we have known since we moved in to this neighborhood over 21 years ago are out of the country on vacation. They asked our son to collect their newspapers while they are away. So, that was the first neighborly activity of the day. Before leaving for school, our son picked up yesterday morning’s newspaper.
One neighbor, former boss and friend of almost 30 years picked me up yesterday morning and we had coffee and pastries at a little French bakery I had never been to before. She was taking me out but I treated her instead because she had opened up her home to our daughter and her friends for Homecoming pictures last month and I wanted to show my appreciation for her generous hospitality. We had a lovely time.
This particular friend is not saved. I love her and do my best to stay in contact with her out of love. I hope I am a good testimony for Christ when we are together. She is such a kind and generous person. And she is one of the most difficult people to witness to because she is a “live and let live” kind of person. She loves that I am a Christian - has absolutely no problem with my faith. But she would feel the same if I was Buddhist or Muslim or Mormon. She is an agnostic. She believes that you can’t know whether there is a God or what truth is so she just doesn’t even try. I pray for her and her husband (who is the son of a former elder at our church) on a regular basis and am so happy to be able to remain a part of their lives.
At 4pm I packed up the kids and we went to visit our 98 year old German friend and his daughter and son-in-law who he lives with now. They don’t live super near to us but they are still neighbors in the Biblical sense. They are more than neighbors actually, they are dear friends and we enjoy our monthly visits. It is always a blessing to visit him and we are always a little sad when we have to leave. He asked me to keep writing to him so next week (or sooner if I get the chance) I will write him another letter. He likes the long newsy ones.😁
Last night it was stormy. It was dumping rain all evening and into the night. We were home and playing a game when we heard a loud crash of thunder. A little while later we heard sirens that cut out just as they approached our neighborhood. As we looked out the window we saw that they had filled our neighborhood up - flashing lights everywhere. 3 fire trucks, an ambulance, the fire chief’s truck and a medical unit - later a police car arrived. Our first concern was for our next door neighbor who has several health issues and is a widow living alone. But as we stood in the pouring rain watching the activity we realized the action was across the street from her house.
Lightning had struck nearby and caused a power surge that fried the wiring and started a fire in the attic. Firefighters with chainsaws opened up the roof and cut out a section of the outer wall and were able to get the fire out out relatively quickly after they arrived. Smoke was pouring out of the opened-up roof and the whole neighborhood smelled smoky.
The house was converted long ago to a duplex. The people who own it live in our neighborhood. We have known them for 20 years. They have 2 adult daughters now living in that duplex that was on fire (one in the upper half and one in the lower half). The fire and smoke damage was confined to the upper half but the power to the entire house is out. It’s an old house with old wiring that will probably need to be completely torn out and replaced. Restoration is going to take a long time. But, thankfully, no one was hurt and the girls can just move back in with their parents only 2 doors down from their dark and smoky home. I called our neighbor to see if she was aware of what was happening and she told me her daughter had been home (upstairs) when it happened so had called her parents who tried to find and put it out but only saw smoke so called the fire department. One neighbor (again, a neighbor we have known for over 20 years) came out into the street to watch with us and to tell us that he had seen the lightning and he is the one who shed light on the potential cause. I took a video and some pictures to send to my husband who was out of town and later I sent them to our neighbor to provide to their insurance company. After the fire was out, the kids and I went back into the house to dry off, warm up and get ready for bed. I got a call from my neighbor at about 10pm asking if we had a tarp so they could use it with one of their own to cover the roof and prevent water damage overnight. Thankfully, we just happened to have a brand new and quite large tarp that we bought over the summer and ended up not needing. We had thought about returning it to the store but decided not to. God knew our neighbors would need help last night so He worked it out so that we kept that brand new tarp that we didn’t have a use for.
What a wild and wonderful day of neighborly love! 💗
No comments:
Post a Comment