One-Man Demolition Crew: History 3

The Building Brows: "History, Part 3: One-Man Demolition Team"

Our old house needed lots of work. Many of the windows were broken and the floor was rotten in parts. The second floor was so shaky that two adults and a child standing in the middle of the floor put a crack in the living room ceiling underneath. We needed materials to redo these parts of the house, but didn't have money. Having become debt-free except our mortgage, we didn't want to become indebted again with a loan. We prayed and soon I had a thought: take out a $5.00 ad in the local paper asking for free building supplies. Would it really work? We weren't sure, but believed God had given us the idea. Besides, it couldn't hurt.

Shortly after the ad came out, we received a few calls. One or two had something we could use, but most didn't. Our last call, however, shocked us.

A guy in a town an hour away had a ten-year old house that used to belong to his brother, but it had been sitting for two years since his brother's death. Family couldn't decide what to do with it, so they planned to burn it down that week. When he saw our ad, they saw a way to lesson their work and benefit us at the same time. We could dismantle the house and take any supplies we wanted.

For the next week, Jim made trip after trip and carried back truck loads of supplies each time. They called him the one-man demolition crew. By the time we were done, Jim had transported back several thermal-insulated windows, loads of plywood, a shower/bath unit, rafter beams, and more. Now we could replace the windows, the floor that was falling away from the wall where the iron tub was, and the tub as well.

We almost got a set of laminate cabinets, but a family member took those at the last minute. We needed new cabinets since when we moved in we discovered the previous owners had lined them with mesh to keep out mice, but all it had done was allow them to nest over the dishes. I had stapled off the mesh with garbage bags as a stopgap until we got new cabinets. I was disappointed, but hoped it meant God had something better planned to fix them.

We never would have thought to ask for free building supplies had we not prayed for what to do. Yet again, God continued to make the way for us. After all, how often do people decide to burn down a ten-year old house just because they can't agree what to do with it?