Update on Farley family in Maine -- after the fire

#1 · August 7, 2002, 10:04 pm

Quote from Forum Archives on August 7, 2002, 10:04 pm
Posted by: homenews <homenews@...>

Dear Hope Chest friends,

Here is an update on the Farley family in Maine. If you remember, this large family (expecting 11th child any day) lost their home in a fire recently. I would like to thank you all for your generosity in helping them get on their feet again.

~~ Virginia

----- Forwarded Message -----

From: "Annette Jurczak" <[email protected]>

To: "Virginia Q Knowles" <[email protected]>

Date: Wed, 7 Aug 2002 17:12:18 -0400

Subject: Farley Update & Note from Wendy Farley

Hi Virginia,

this is what I emailed out to my list and to some of the people I have heard from out of state. God is good!

I wrote the update below before Wendy emailed me her own update. So I am sending both.

Update on the Farley family ~Annette

Thanks to so many of you for your prayers, offers of material items & hs books, and financial help for the Farley family. As of earlier this week, the original goal of raising $3000 has now been more than 2/3 met. $2045.66 has come in from hs families. I am awed to have been a part of seeing this happen.

I talked with Wendy Tuesday night and she said she can't even begin to say thank-you to everyone in the hs community for all that they have done.

I asked her if she could use anything and she mentioned two items that can only be indicative of raising a large family in rural Maine. 🙂 She is looking for canning jars and a mirromatic food canner/processor that has a weighted dial instead of the typical gauge. She uses a woodstove and the dial makes a difference.

She has not had the baby yet and it seems the original due date was premature. Hopefully, the baby will arrive soon as she is very close to term and uncomfortable.

As far as the rebuilding, the initial word is the foundation is usable; but it will need to be reinforced. Praise God!

Some money has come in for the children's homeschool books through the car wash held Saturday and a love offering from a local church. This will definitely help in making a dent in their hs book wish list. If anyone has Apologia's "Exploring Creation with Biology"; "Bring the Classics to Life Series" Levels 1 - 5 ; "Alpha Phonics"; or the "Keys to Algebra" (not written in) to offer at a substantially reduced price, please let me know and I'll get right back to you. The rest of their homeschool book wish list is Alpha Omega life packs.

Perhaps, 95 families will contribute $10 for the remainder of the goal that I set originally. If not, that is fine, and praise God for using his people to be a wonderful blessing to another family. Know that "...because that for this thing the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto." Duet. 15: 10b (Deuteronomy 15:7-11)

Annette Jurczak

PO Box 184

Hudson, ME 04449-0184

From Wendy Farley:

JEHOVAH-JIREH.The LORD will provide.
This is what Rusty and I said to each other the night of the fire, knowing that the LORD would HAVE to provide, just as He always has for our family. At that moment in time we were homeless, with no food, very little money and some of the children were not even fully dressed. I didn't even have shoes on! Although we knew He would provide, I think we had no concept of just HOW that would happen and it has been exciting to be a part of this. That night we had a place to stay, the children were taken care of, bathed and
fed while I spent the evening in the emergency room at Mayo Hospital waiting to have my (minor) burn looked at and tended to.

During the next few days we couldn't help but feel a bit like Job, even to the similarity of having 7 boys and 3 girls for children. We are so thankful that the Lord choose not to take any children, I don't think we could comprehend that loss as it would make losing material things seem so small. As the days passed, Job kept coming to mind, how that the Lord took all that he had, and Job still remained faithful. When the time came for God to restore things to Job, he did over and above, bigger and better than what Job had in the beginning.
We have seen this so many times already with what people have donated. Things that are better than we used to have, things that we couldn't have even imagined asking for.

It seemed like one of the biggest obstacles we had to wait on was to find out if the foundation was able to be built on or not. Rusty and I had already discussed rebuilding and felt that the Lord had allowed the fire to happen partly as a result of unthankfullness for all that the Lord had provided for us. We prayed about it and felt that we were supposed to build a much smaller house. Again, as the days past, Job kept coming to mind, and why would the Lord who has been providing above and beyond what we had before, expect us to settle for a house that was LESS than what we had before. I think because we were willing to settle and be content with less,
God has provided the means to rebuild our house as it was before with some minor changes since it was previously built with a lot of recycled lumber, and the same materials are not available as they were 2 years ago. We anxiously awaited the structural engineer to come and see the foundation and see what he thought. The final report stated that yes, the foundation is able to be used, with some additional support provided inside the basement by way of some vertical steel posts, bolted to the floor joists and the
concrete floor.

Right now the guys are working on rounding up lumber. We have had some donated lumber, Melvin Yoder of Corinna has wonderfully offered to saw some logs that were donated to us, and again, lots and lots of recycled lumber will be used. I know the guys are anxious to get started building, so hopefully it won't be too long before they can get started. We have had lots of offers to come pound nails so I am sure things will go quickly! It will be exciting to see!

For right now we are still staying in a camp that a friend told us we could be in as long as needed. We did move a mobile home onto the property and also a 30' camper for some of the older children to sleep in, but will probably stay in the camp until after the baby arrives -which SHOULD be any time now :-))

Thank you to all of you that have donated money/stuff. We have received many, many notes along with small checks that say something like, I know this isn't much, but. Well, I can tell you, that God has multiplied all those little gifts that people think aren't much to meet the immediate needs of this family and also provide enough money to rebuild the house. We are also very thankful that the Lord prepared us for this time by showing us how to spend money wisely. If we had to go to the local lumber store and try to rebuild, it couldn't be done with what money has come in. However, He has
provided the network of people to use logs and used lumber at a small fraction of the cost, and has also provided the guys here with an incredible ability to be able to build the house. JEHOVAH-JIREH the LORD HAS PROVIDED!

Most importantly, thank you for keeping us in your prayers. Please
continue to pray for wisdom and strength in the days ahead of us. There is a lot to do before the snow flies!

Love in JESUS!
Rusty & Wendy
Levi, Caleb, Seth, Hannah, Asa, Ezra, Jared, Simon, Lydia, Abigail, ....and the little one that is keeping us waiting !

Posted by: homenews <homenews@...>

Dear Hope Chest friends,

Here is an update on the Farley family in Maine. If you remember, this large family (expecting 11th child any day) lost their home in a fire recently. I would like to thank you all for your generosity in helping them get on their feet again.

~~ Virginia

----- Forwarded Message -----

From: "Annette Jurczak" <[email protected]>

To: "Virginia Q Knowles" <[email protected]>

Date: Wed, 7 Aug 2002 17:12:18 -0400

Subject: Farley Update & Note from Wendy Farley

Hi Virginia,

this is what I emailed out to my list and to some of the people I have heard from out of state. God is good!

I wrote the update below before Wendy emailed me her own update. So I am sending both.

Update on the Farley family ~Annette

Thanks to so many of you for your prayers, offers of material items & hs books, and financial help for the Farley family. As of earlier this week, the original goal of raising $3000 has now been more than 2/3 met. $2045.66 has come in from hs families. I am awed to have been a part of seeing this happen.

I talked with Wendy Tuesday night and she said she can't even begin to say thank-you to everyone in the hs community for all that they have done.

I asked her if she could use anything and she mentioned two items that can only be indicative of raising a large family in rural Maine. 🙂 She is looking for canning jars and a mirromatic food canner/processor that has a weighted dial instead of the typical gauge. She uses a woodstove and the dial makes a difference.

She has not had the baby yet and it seems the original due date was premature. Hopefully, the baby will arrive soon as she is very close to term and uncomfortable.

As far as the rebuilding, the initial word is the foundation is usable; but it will need to be reinforced. Praise God!

Some money has come in for the children's homeschool books through the car wash held Saturday and a love offering from a local church. This will definitely help in making a dent in their hs book wish list. If anyone has Apologia's "Exploring Creation with Biology"; "Bring the Classics to Life Series" Levels 1 - 5 ; "Alpha Phonics"; or the "Keys to Algebra" (not written in) to offer at a substantially reduced price, please let me know and I'll get right back to you. The rest of their homeschool book wish list is Alpha Omega life packs.

Perhaps, 95 families will contribute $10 for the remainder of the goal that I set originally. If not, that is fine, and praise God for using his people to be a wonderful blessing to another family. Know that "...because that for this thing the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto." Duet. 15: 10b (Deuteronomy 15:7-11)

Annette Jurczak

PO Box 184

Hudson, ME 04449-0184

From Wendy Farley:

JEHOVAH-JIREH.The LORD will provide.
This is what Rusty and I said to each other the night of the fire, knowing that the LORD would HAVE to provide, just as He always has for our family. At that moment in time we were homeless, with no food, very little money and some of the children were not even fully dressed. I didn't even have shoes on! Although we knew He would provide, I think we had no concept of just HOW that would happen and it has been exciting to be a part of this. That night we had a place to stay, the children were taken care of, bathed and
fed while I spent the evening in the emergency room at Mayo Hospital waiting to have my (minor) burn looked at and tended to.

During the next few days we couldn't help but feel a bit like Job, even to the similarity of having 7 boys and 3 girls for children. We are so thankful that the Lord choose not to take any children, I don't think we could comprehend that loss as it would make losing material things seem so small. As the days passed, Job kept coming to mind, how that the Lord took all that he had, and Job still remained faithful. When the time came for God to restore things to Job, he did over and above, bigger and better than what Job had in the beginning.
We have seen this so many times already with what people have donated. Things that are better than we used to have, things that we couldn't have even imagined asking for.

It seemed like one of the biggest obstacles we had to wait on was to find out if the foundation was able to be built on or not. Rusty and I had already discussed rebuilding and felt that the Lord had allowed the fire to happen partly as a result of unthankfullness for all that the Lord had provided for us. We prayed about it and felt that we were supposed to build a much smaller house. Again, as the days past, Job kept coming to mind, and why would the Lord who has been providing above and beyond what we had before, expect us to settle for a house that was LESS than what we had before. I think because we were willing to settle and be content with less,
God has provided the means to rebuild our house as it was before with some minor changes since it was previously built with a lot of recycled lumber, and the same materials are not available as they were 2 years ago. We anxiously awaited the structural engineer to come and see the foundation and see what he thought. The final report stated that yes, the foundation is able to be used, with some additional support provided inside the basement by way of some vertical steel posts, bolted to the floor joists and the
concrete floor.

Right now the guys are working on rounding up lumber. We have had some donated lumber, Melvin Yoder of Corinna has wonderfully offered to saw some logs that were donated to us, and again, lots and lots of recycled lumber will be used. I know the guys are anxious to get started building, so hopefully it won't be too long before they can get started. We have had lots of offers to come pound nails so I am sure things will go quickly! It will be exciting to see!

For right now we are still staying in a camp that a friend told us we could be in as long as needed. We did move a mobile home onto the property and also a 30' camper for some of the older children to sleep in, but will probably stay in the camp until after the baby arrives -which SHOULD be any time now :-))

Thank you to all of you that have donated money/stuff. We have received many, many notes along with small checks that say something like, I know this isn't much, but. Well, I can tell you, that God has multiplied all those little gifts that people think aren't much to meet the immediate needs of this family and also provide enough money to rebuild the house. We are also very thankful that the Lord prepared us for this time by showing us how to spend money wisely. If we had to go to the local lumber store and try to rebuild, it couldn't be done with what money has come in. However, He has
provided the network of people to use logs and used lumber at a small fraction of the cost, and has also provided the guys here with an incredible ability to be able to build the house. JEHOVAH-JIREH the LORD HAS PROVIDED!

Most importantly, thank you for keeping us in your prayers. Please
continue to pray for wisdom and strength in the days ahead of us. There is a lot to do before the snow flies!

Love in JESUS!
Rusty & Wendy
Levi, Caleb, Seth, Hannah, Asa, Ezra, Jared, Simon, Lydia, Abigail, ....and the little one that is keeping us waiting !