March Blog
The Lord is My Provider
Hi everybody! I’m excited today to host you here in this video on my very own property. And I just have some wonderful stories to share with you about how God has provided for me here.
It was 3 ½ years ago that my husband Bob passed away. We had been married for 39 years and we had lived in the same house for 26 years. I continued to live there for another year, year and a half, after Bob died, and then one morning, the day after Christmas actually, I woke up and the Lord said to me, “Prepare your heart to move.”
I was surprised, I hadn’t really considered it, but I said, “OK, Lord.” And then I said, “But I’m gonna miss my gazebo.” Because just the summer before, some friends from The Widows Project had helped me by building a gazebo and a patio—putting it in for me. And it was just beautiful. It was my happy place. I loved going out there to spend time with the Lord, or host people. But I said, “Okay.”
And so, I began to prepare my heart to move, and I began to pack and do everything necessary to vacate a home after being there so many years. But that morning, before I even got up, I pulled out my phone, and looked at an app to see what homes were available in my price range, and immediately pulled up this property. It was the first property I looked at. Not only did it have a home for me, but it had a second home on the property—it’s a shy half acre—where my son Stevie and his wife Jasmine live. So it’s just delightful to have them right next door on our property. Not only that, but this property has two gazebos, two pergolas, two covered porches and a koi pond. And it’s more than I could have ever desired, and it’s all in the context of a beautiful Japanese garden.
I don’t know what my mansion in heaven is gonna look like, but I tell you what. I’m very happy with these surroundings here so I can only imagine what it will be like up there.
But it wasn’t always peaceful here, because about nine months after I moved in, I was visiting Linda Smith for a writing retreat—Linda’s my co-director with The Widows Project—I came home to pick something up and found that while I was gone, the water heater had broken and flooded my house.
Long story short, they had to gut my kitchen, my bathroom, take out all the flooring except in the back three bedrooms and bath, and over a period of 8 ½ months, my home was remodeled.
The good news is I have a beautiful new home that I would never have had paid to remodel myself. Insurance did cover most of it, and during that time, Linda was gracious enough to invite me to stay with her.
During that 8 ½ months, she set her laptop up on one end of her kitchen table, and I sat on the other end with my laptop, and God helped us publish two books for The Widows Project during that time. And He also helped us to accomplish the goals that he had given us for 2022, which we had prayed about that week when my water heater broke.
So, I was able to move back after 8 ½ months to a beautiful new home.
Then just a few weeks ago, three months later, we had a freeze here in the northwest. It was down to somewhere between 5 and 10 degrees, and a pipe broke. This time, somewhere in my yard. Fortunately, nothing was damaged in the homes, but we had no idea where the leak was. Two plumbers came out to try to find it, they couldn’t find it, so I scheduled a leak detection company to come out the following week, and understood that my insurance would likely not cover it and that it would most likely be a pretty penny.
In the meantime, Linda was at my house again for our annual prayer retreat, to pray for our goals for 2023, to see what the Lord had in mind for The Widows Project. So, while she was here, we had to turn off the water main. We could turn it on once a day to take showers and gather drinking water and so on, and then we’d have to turn it off again until the leak was discovered and repaired.
In the meantime, a package was accidentally delivered to my house that was supposed to go to someone 2 ½ miles away. The interesting thing is that I actually knew the recipient, the intended recipient of that package, so he.. it happened to be the wife of a friend of my late husband’s. His name is Tom. So I texted Tom and said, “I’ve got a package here, addressed to your wife.” He said, “I’ll be right over.”
So he came over and what I hadn’t really considered is that Tom is a plumber. So when he walked in and saw that we were living with pots of water, and we told him we had a water leak, Linda said his face lit up like Christmas at the thought that he could repair a water leak for me. So, I took him out to the yard, and we did find a squishy part in the grass. He dug down and immediately found the leak. And which in itself is completely miraculous.
He came back the next day with everything he needed to dig down further and fix the pipe, saving me potentially thousands and thousands of dollars. All because of a package that was accidentally delivered elsewhere.
So, praise God. He is truly my Shepherd. He does lead me beside these beautiful still waters. He does restore my soul. And he truly is the Husband to the widow. And He has promised us that He has given us everything we need for life and godliness, and He will never leave us, and never forsake us.
I’m sharing this with you today in hopes that it will encourage you. That no matter what you may face, God is there for you. He will provide for you. He loves you. And He has not forgotten you. God bless you!
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