“For many days neither sun nor stars appeared, and the severe storm kept raging. Finally all hope was fading that we would be saved.”
Acts 27:20

“. . . At that point, they could only see part of the picture. The part they were living at the time. That’s all they had. [But the] story wasn’t over yet. God was not finished. God does miraculous things. Even when all hope seems lost.” ~ Vaneetha Risner, Watching for the Morning

My beloved orchid just very suddenly and prematurely dropped it’s full and healthy blooms yesterday in, as my mother would say, “one fell swoop.” I’m not sure why, but it was almost as if they just got tired of holding on, and then let go. All of them at once. I can understand that feeling. The leaves also don’t look so great suddenly, though, so I’m not sure what caused this. Whatever the reason, it’s bare now and looks sad. Maybe it will come back eventually. It has before, so there is reason to hope.

Four days from now, our family medical insurance policy will end.

Since we have had to cut our small non-profit back almost to nothing, let our staff go, and reduce our work to only a small attempt at continuing to help orphans, Scott’s already-small salary has now been cut in half.

Almost 2 1/2 years into my recovery from Covid-induced heart failure, I am, at this moment, barely improved from where I was at my worst, thanks to the unbearable heat and humidity this summer — in spite of an intense recovery plan involving multiple rehabs and a new trial on an experimental drug treatment that is, so far, only causing worse fatigue, drowsiness, and terrible nausea as I gradually titrate up to the full dose. I’m running daily fevers again and suffering from flu-like symptoms almost constantly, on top of struggling to breathe and even walk short distances, due to weakness and poor balance, and a dysfunctional diaphragm.

Saturday night (last night), I finally managed to drag myself in and out of the shower before climbing into bed, wondering why the house was feeling so hot. Scott — while juggling about a million things for the kids’ bedtime routines without my help at all — did a quick check and determined that the AC unit in the 30-year-old part of the house wasn’t cooling at all. The fan was running, but there was no cold air. Thankfully, the unit in the 13-year-old addition seemed to be working fine, so he went about waking kids and moving people around to fit everyone into spaces in the cooler part of the house, then texted our favorite repairman who has been caring for our heating and AC needs for years. Our repairman replied right away, saying that he would come first thing the next morning, even though it was a Sunday, and instructed Scott to turn that unit off completely.

Since we had just determined that we didn’t have enough money to order groceries for the coming week, we had no idea how we would pay for a service call, much less a possibly expensive repair. So we prayed for God to continue carrying and providing for us, and we settled in to go to sleep. But before we fell asleep, a dear long-distance friend (a friend who, I think, didn’t yet know about our AC problem) sent me a gift via Venmo. Maybe that would be enough to cover the service call? We were amazed at God’s timing.

The next morning (this morning), our repairman arrived and checked things out. When he reset things and tried to start the unit back up again, it worked! We think we may have a bad thermostat, but if that turns out to be the case, Scott can replace that himself. For now, though, both units are working and cooling the house, even though no residential unit can provide complete relief from this insanely high humidity.

But that’s not the most amazing part.

Once he was done, he refused to accept payment for the service call.

And that’s still not all.

Then he handed Scott a box of new filters for the units.

And then he proceeded to check and clean both units, top off their Freon, and tell us that he wants to come back out in the fall to check and clean the furnaces. Still refusing to accept any pay.

Then . . . he GAVE Scott an envelope with some cash in it! He PAID us! What in the world?! What was happening here? With the gift from last night, and this gift from this morning, we can now order some groceries for the next few days! AND our AC is working again. This was such a strange plan for how to provide for our needs.

This is the kind of God who is holding us, caring for us, providing for us. The One who hears our prayers and guides our steps, as He writes a most amazing story and never, ever leaves us.

After Scott came upstairs to tell me all that had happened, we both teared up, and I wrote this kind man a text to thank him. This is part of his reply to that text:

“And you wanna know the strangest thing the last couple days I told Scott you guys have been on my heart you guys been on my mind. I was thinking you know I haven’t heard from you guys in a while. I said I hope they’re OK. . . . I also truly believe that God has everything to do with this. God puts this on my heart to help certain people . . . so just make sure you give him the praises.“

Our medical insurance still ends in four days. We are still working to figure out how to move forward on only half-salary as we navigate a new (very slow) world of Social Security and Medicare. But God embraced us gently this morning and whispered into our ears, “I’m still here. I’m still writing your story. I will take care of you. Just keep trusting me even in the storm.”

There is always reason to hope when that hope is in our all-loving Father.