Answered Prayer: A Home of Our Own

We felt this website would be more helpful if the posts were not repurposed blog posts from Christian writers and scholars but instead the amazing testimonies of everyday people.  To this end we decided that the subject of this blog would be “answered prayer.”

A Home of Our Own

When I was around 5 years old, I remember sitting all afternoon in a park with my three brothers and three sisters not knowing why we could not go home.  My older sister would just respond, “we’ll be going soon.” As afternoon turned into evening, we waited for my mother to return and then went to a strange new place, the Salvation Army.  Turns out our family had been evicted from public housing.  My older brother had gotten into some type of trouble and without a hearing of any type, we were evicted.

Fortunately, the stay at the Salvation Army was shortened to a couple of weeks because my father had found an apartment building willing to take a family with nine kids.  It was a small five room apartment in a three-story walk-up.  We had to sleep three or four to a bed but my mother and father never complained so we knew we shouldn’t also.  My mom continued to study her many Bibles as we continued to pray Psalm 23 and give thanks for the roof over our heads.

In addition to study for the next four months my mom prayed for her own home that would give us kids room to play safely and sleep comfortably at night.  Her idea of a home was a “rental” with enough bedrooms to fit nine children.  A rental was all she would ever dare to imagine with 9 mouths to feed and two parents earning minimum wage.

About four months later, suddenly out of the blue, a large box arrived special delivery.  The box contained about 10 lbs. of barbecue ribs packed in dry ice to keep them from spoiling and a letter.

The letter said that the box was from a man who claimed to be my mother’s biological father!  He heard rumors over the years that he fathered a daughter and for some reason, at that time, he decided to look for her.  Searching was not easy in this pre-internet time also, he had not married my grandmother; but still he found us.  Turns out Granddaddy owned two very successful barbeque restaurants and lots of commercial real estate in Louisiana.  He was what we would call RICH!

Granddaddy came to visit immediately.  He provided a healthy down payment on a new 5-bedroom home that also included a 3-bedroom unit that could be rented out.  For the next 10 years until he passed, we had new clothes for school and some pretty amazing holidays.

Many years later my mom experienced another event when there was not enough food for us.  She was praying and studying from her collection of Bibles when a woman passed our house.  The woman was driving past and happened to look up and saw the rental unit empty.  This person immediately rang the doorbell, talked a bit and then paid cash for the security and first month’s rent on the spot!

Now this is my own personal story and I have many more that I hope will help people out there with a need.  I would love to have your comments and please feel free to submit your own stories of answered prayers.

Be Blessed

Faith

 

 

 

Category: General