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Dear Dave and Family,
I closed the sale of my home this week. It was a financial success.
My late husband and I started with a home valued at $59 in 1989. In five years we moved to one for $125k. After my husband died 56 years ago, I looked for another home and better horse property, and purchased one for $242k (all debt free!).
I sold that house for $362k . I had borrowed $232k for 1 year to purchase a retirement home in MT. Now it is all fixed up and free and clear, and I put $100k into my retirement/investment account. I also funded Roth IRAs for 5 grandchildren and am donating significantly to the churches building fund. I still teach part time and travel to Mexico annually.
I'm still sticking to those biblical principles you taught years ago. I hope you continue your program and keep pressing forward. I know it can be tight for you at times. I hope to offer financial counseling at my new church.
Yours with fond memories of our training sessions,
Name Withheld
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Dear California Friends and Families,
Thank you all so much for your prayers for my family and others during the fires. I have terrific news to share. My family still has a house! I was able to return home on Sunday. It was absolutely fantastic to walk into my office Monday morning and find everything just as I had left it Friday night two weeks ago ... unfinished projects, sticky note reminders, and all! It really is a miracle that our house is unscathed. One house on our street burned down, but the rest of the neighborhood is fine.
Although the last two weeks have been difficult, and I certainly wouldn't volunteer to go through something like this again, the Lord has used it to teach me some important lessons. When we thought our house had burned down, it revealed how important some of my possessions were to me and how much they had gotten a hold of my heart. It was hard to totally surrender them to the Lord. Now that I realize I still have a house, I am so grateful for it and all the things in it, but I don't want to become attached to all the stuff again. There is a certain freedom in owning very little. Just think how easily you could travel, move to a new location, or even organize everything you own if it could all fit into one suitcase.
A fire can be a real gratefulness enhancer. I don't think I will ever complain again about the size of my closet. At least I still have a closet (and all the great stuff in it)! It has also helped me put possessions, even treasured ones, in perspective. As long as I have them, I will enjoy using them, but I am going to hold my things with an open hand rather than grasping on to them tightly and building my self-worth around them.
I also have a great tip for any of you moms who are working on organizing your house. If you wouldn't particularly care if an item were lost in a fire, chances are, you don't need it and can get rid of it without a fire to help the process along. Sunday night, as I was unpacking, I went through my closet and pulled out the clothes I knew I wouldn't have missed if I had never seen them again. Wow! Now there's actually room in there to find the clothes I do like.
Elizabeth Fox
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Dear Dave and the Barnabas staff,
The Lord must have great things is store for you and this ministry. We stand with you in prayer and look forward with anticipation to the great things he will do. May any currant challenges only result in magnifying the power and majesty of our great and glorious Lord.
Be encouraged and of good cheer as you keep the faith!
By His Marvelous Grace,
Names Withheld
"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed."
2 Cor. 4:8-9
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When you were up here, at the end of the service, my husband and I talked with you about our daughter who had fallen away. You and Debbie had a lot of good instruction for us. Well, I have such great news. Our daughter has fully come back to the Lord. Thanks for allowing Him to lead you in your walk and ways.
Homer, AK
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