More than a dozen men from across denominational lines ascended the Gruhn's roof. Getting higher on God's green earth made me think about the Highest power.
I'm not a guy who spends a lot of his days sitting around pouring over books thinking about how God works. I would much rather roll up my sleeves and get to work helping my fellow man. (Point of reference, read Matthew 25). But this morning something came over me as I stood on top the top of a garage in a circle with a number of men I didn't know. We were about to bow our heads in prayer as the unusually cool August air swept over us and the morning sun peeked through the tree branches. I looked around at these men's faces and thought to myself, "I'll tell you how God works - He gives us exactly what we need at exactly the time we need it." Don't misread me. He doesn't always give you what you want, or even what you think you need, but He always gives us what we need.
Case in point: I have prayed non-stop since the beginning of this walk with the Gruhn family that God would take care of the things that need to be taken care as we progress every step of the way. The flood recovery volunteers will tell you, I'm not a carpenter, nor do I pretend to be. The closest I've come is watching home makeovers on HGTV with my wife. God didn't gift me with that skill set, but He has surrounded me with people who He has! I recognize that, not only do I recognize that these people are skilled, but I recognize that it's a gift given to this project that comes from God. Sometimes you simply have to stand in awe how good He actually is to us!
Just like those HGTV shows, our open date house at the Gruhn's is bearing down on us. For some time now I've worried about how we were going to get the garage re-roofed. It's a fairly skilled job. Even the faithful, talented volunteers from our church told me as we put siding on the garage LAST WEEK that roofing not something they feel they can do or really desire to do. They said they would help out; they just didn't want to lead the charge. But you know, strangely my confidence level never dropped that somehow it would get done. I just have learned to trust this summer that somehow God will get it done...in His time.
Then I came across an old email from a friend of a friend at church who said she knew of someone who did roofing as a ministry. I replied to the email weeks ago. At that time the man, named LaMar Grafft, said his Bible study group already had a few houses lined up to work on this year so I kind of let it go. Until this week. I shot a quick email to LaMar to see where they were at with things. He called me back and said he would drive by the Gruhn's in the morning. The next phone call I got from LaMar was that he had spoken to his group and they wanted to do it this Saturday! Can you believe that? Does that just floor you how God works?! On top of that, roofing can be a hot job, and God put it all together for us on a 70 degree day in August! Does that just give you goosebumps?
So about 12-15 guys were up and down ladders ALL DAY. It was our longest day yet. They went from 8 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon. I never asked a single one of them to stay past noon, and they guys stayed until the job was done. The Gruhn's finished the day with a beautiful, newly roofed garage complete with new tar paper and shingles. The workers had to do quite a bit of repair to the wood underneath the old shingles. Robert Gruhn and his Dad built the garage themselves out of old salvaged wood from a barn the year Robert graduated high school - 1983! And now 26 years later, through a flood of water, a flood of kind-heartedness, and a truckload of human obedience to God's Guiding Spirit, the job is done.
Next Saturday we are asking volunteers to return to finish siding the garage. We also need a "clean team" to pick-up and clean the inside of the house and tidy up around the yard for the open house the following day (Sunday, Aug. 30th). God bless you all!
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