Online Community Comes Through For Couple In West Virginia

The past 4 days we have been in contact with a lady from West Virginia who was in need of a warm place to sleep and 200 dollars to pay off her electric bill so it could be turned back on. She and her husband had been staying with a friend but Saturday December 11th was the last day they were able to stay there. That night this lady contacts us while we were at a Christmas Concert with some friends.

Jeremy got up during the concert and stood in the rain to talk with this lady and try to find her a hotel room to stay at. But due to being in a bad area for cellphone service we lost contact with her. After the concert when we got home, she had left a voice mail stating she was sitting at a restaurant waiting for her husband to get off work but they didn’t know where they would sleep for the night. She had earlier been staying at her home heating with a kerosene heater but the fumes became too much and she felt it was not safe to run the heater and stay at the home that night.

She talks to Jeremy for quite a while on the phone and so at 11:30 P.M. Saturday night we sent out a post on our facebook, twitter and myspace asking if people could just donate 20cents. If every person on Jeremy’s friends list would donate 20 cents apiece to help pay on this lady’s electric bill, it would be paid.
Within moments we had people from all over the country responding asking how they could donate. We asked them to click the “donate” button on our JMC Ministries Website. In just 3 hours we had raised all the funds we needed! And this in the middle of the night! We donated 50 dollars towards the 200 dollars needed and $150.77 was raised by our online community of followers! Not just this but someone in West Virginia got ahold of this lady and put her and her husband up in a hotel room for 2 nights!

So Sunday December 12, 2010 with our 200 dollars raised we called the electric company provider in West Virginia and paid on their electric bill for them. The bill is 400 dollars but she has been told that she can get assistance with half of the bill. So hopefully today her electric will be turned back on.
But none of this could have happened without our online community of friends. One man who gave a donation wrote us later last night saying “When I gave money yesterday to help the woman find a place to stay in the cold winter of WV, I started to give a particular amount. Then I felt led to give a larger amount. I paused, then decided to do it. God will provide, I thought. Earlier today, I was going through yesterday's mail that I hadn't had a chance to look at yet and I was opening it and discovered two Christmas cards. One had a check in it and another had some cash. The total was MORE than that original amount I had first thought about giving. God DID provide!”

Sometimes it is hard to decide when we should help others, but if we just pray for discernment and listen for God’s voice he will tell us what to do. Because this man made himself available for God to use him, he received a blessing in return and confirmation that God was in the middle of this whole thing. When we make ourselves available for God, Miracles happen.

We thank you all for your prayers and financial support through this entire journey.  Words really cannot express our appreciation for your help.