A number of you are my friends on Facebook, so you may already be aware of the current situation.  On Tuesday night (Sept 17) we were awoken by our neighbor to discover the apartment below ours was in flames, and our home filled up with smoke quickly.  Thanks for our neighbor’s quick action, we were able to get out safely along with out pets.  Thankfully there was no fire damage, but the smoke damage is extensive, and we’ve been forced out of our home while our landlord rebuilds.

As many of your already know, this couldn’t have happened at a worse time.  After a summer of trials including multiple deaths, job-losses, and a hurricane, we’re pretty lost as to how we’re going to deal with everything.  Now even our vehicle has decided to start breaking down, making us even more impotent.  In the midst of all this, however, we have been greatly blessed by friends & family all eager to lend a hand.  We’ve been offered a temporary place to stay while reconstruction is underway, and many folks have offered to help with cleanup and moving.

However, many of you have contacted me to ask for some tangible way you can help, so I’ve set up a GoFundMe campaign for folks who want to help in a financial way.  The current total is just a rough, conservative estimate of our immediate need, but that may increase as we go through the process of determine what can be saved, and what is lost.

Please don’t feel obligated to contribute in any way.  This is just for the folks who have asked for a way to help.  If you want to help, click here to go to the GoFundMe campaign, and even if you can’t chip in, you can still share the campaign on social media… that’s also a huge help.  I hate coming to people with a hand out like this, but I was chastised by a listener who said that by not sharing it, I’d be robbing people of an opportunity to do make a difference.

We’re very thankful that God preserved us and all our pets during this and EXTREMELY thankful to our neighbour who saved our lives.  If she hadn’t been home or hadn’t woken us, Marsha and I would have died in our sleep that night.