Alrighty folks, gotta get back to Jeffrey for yet another miracle we encountered once we got ready to get him back to college after his freshman year. If you remember, his previous year didn’t exactly end up on the happiest note (Our God – Always on Time).
We enjoyed our summer with Jeffrey back at home, but the start of his sophomore year was coming up on us fast and we still had no place for him to live since ERAU had stated that he could no longer live on campus.
Yet I was maintaining a lot better than I had before we originally moved him down there – no more surgeries for me (Last Surgery – Continued)! After the miracles that God provided before our move down a year ago, I was staying as upbeat as possible.
I was on the phone with Jeffrey’s caseworker Betty frequently throughout the summer, but when I called her when there was only about 3 weeks left before school started to ask if she’d yet found anyplace for him to live, she said, “no.”
She said no residence homes had come through, and she had even been looking at apartments for Jeffrey; however the ones available either weren’t wheelchair accessible or were in a bad area of town.
Gary and I started making plans to take off and spend a couple weeks down there looking ourselves – we really felt God was going to make a way … somehow.
And He certainly did. Remember the couple that Jeffrey spent a trial weekend with the year before that he’d treated badly (Our God – Always On Time)? Well God had definitely been moving in their hearts, because Betty had spoken to them, and they said they still were agreeable to having Jeffrey live with them – if he wanted to, of course!
And Jeffrey? When faced with the choice of not going back to school or living with this couple, what could he say? He certainly didn’t want to give up his freedom of living away from mom and dad!
However there was a small glitch. The couple told us they’d already made plans for a vacation – and would not get back home until after the first week of school. Well it was an inconvenience; but we were so ecstatic that we arranged to stay in a hotel down there that first week so that Jeffrey could get started with his classes.
When we got back down to Arizona we were able to meet with this precious couple a day before they left on their vacation. We absolutely fell in love with them. Plus they were fellow believers in Jesus!
When we asked them their thoughts about the trial weekend the previous year, and why they even felt compelled to give Jeffrey another chance, they stated they really believed that God had called them to help the “less fortunate” in life. And they had never cared for a child like Jeffrey with his disabilities – who was going to college!
Another huge blessing? They had shared with their church the need for a wheelchair accessible van so that they could drive Jeffrey back and forth to school. And what happened? A couple at their church heard about it, and sold them their van which only had about 50,000 miles on it for only $4,500! Plus it already had installed a lock for Jeffrey’s wheelchair.
The man stated that he was already in the process of building ramps where needed at their home, and would make sure to customize one of their bathrooms just to fit Jeffrey and his wheelchair.
As we got all Jeffrey’s stuff moved into their home a week later we were just filled with continuous awe and wonder at the love, grace and mercy of our God for bringing these people into our lives for such a time as this.
Psalm 37:4 (ESV) says:
“Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”
Yes, what a great God we serve!
The God Of All Comfort 