Community Kindness
I have learned so much about God’s love for His children living on this farm. You need all the fruit of the Spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. It is what gets you through the long days of hard work, and then you look back and see all that you have done, and you say “God we did it”. And the first lesson you learn is you can’t do anything without Jesus. And the second lesson you learn is His love for you is the most amazing thing ever. And there is no one who can love you the way He does. Then you began to understand the verse in John 12:24, that says “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless the grain of wheat that falls into the ground dies, it remains alone, but if it dies it bears much fruit”. The good fruit that God wants us to harvest are the precious souls that live on this mountain. And in order to do that we must be like that grain that falls into the ground and dies.
We have lived on this farm for 1 year now, and we see each and every day why God brought us here. It was to change us. Has it been easy? I can truly say “NO”, but has it been worth it? I can truly say “YES”. Here's an example of what I mean...
When we first came to this area and this mountain we met one of our neighbors, Big Hugh, (he has since passed away). His family owned this mountain many years ago. He told us that the people on the mountain take care of each other and whatever we needed just let him know and he would do whatever he could to help. Since his passing his grandson echoed those very words to us. He told us whatever his grandfather promised us he would honor. By the time we moved onto this farm we had met many of our neighbors and every one of them has been helpful and kind to us.
It was 1 year ago on a cool October 31st evening; someone set our barn on fire. More than likely a Halloween prank. Vernon and I had just settled in from a long day’s work, when we heard a knock at our door, it was our neighbor Mark and his wife. Frantically screaming “Your barn is on fire!" Vernon grabbed his coat and as he went running out the door I yelled to him “I will call 911. Just get the tractor out… save the tractor”. We stored all of our hay and kept the tractor in the barn. Hay is easy to replace but not a tractor.
Soñée had a word of prayer and then I call 911. Our neighbor Hughie got on his tractor hoping he could save as much of the hay as he could. You see he stored his hay in our barn as well. Hughie still had the hay fork on his tractor. His wife Cathy came by our house to pick me up so we could go around the mountain calling on our neighbors for help. I had never seen anything like what I saw that night. Neighbors Vernon and I had never met, with no hesitation came out in their pickup trucks with men with others in the back of their trucks ready to help put out the fire. It did not take the fire company long at all to get there.
Vernon made it in time to get the tractor out. Hughie was able to get the hay that had been set on fire out of the barn that saved the rest of the hay. The fire department put the fire out and saved our barn. One of our neighbors had an old fashion water truck that he used to help keep the fire from igniting after the firemen left. That night Vernon and I got to see our mountain community come to help us just like Big Hugh said. That night we met the rest of our neighbors and what a blessing to meet them all.
We found out later in the week that our barn was not the only barn set on fire that night, there were 7 barns in total. Our barn was the only one that was saved. The person that set the fires was caught a week later along with his girlfriend. Thank you my mountain community for showing Vernon and me true neighborly kindness, and thank you God for your constant love and protection.
