Mounting Urgency

A strange turn of events is making this house situation a little more intense. So far, nothing has changed from my last update concerning the house we want, but the one we are in is becoming an issue. We've been noticing a pattern that has escalated very quickly, which makes our prayer request more urgent. I'll explain.

Most of you know this, but Zack's parents moved from Phoenix in November and have been living with us since that time. The Lord opened the doors to move here, but Bruce (Zack's father) has had trouble finding work in KC, and not for lack of effort. As a general contractor, the job openings here are few and far between. Anita (Zack's mother) is the head of a ministry based in Turkey, and travels there several times a year. We've been grateful to offer a place of them to stay, albeit a small place, but with that comes a more sickness than usual.

Zack has had chronic sinus congestion and a cough since January, which sometimes gets better for a couple days, but then quickly goes back into a severe cold. Bruce takes blood-pressure medication that causes him to cough here and there, but the last few months have been awful for him, and he now coughs so often and so hard that it causes him to gag. Anita has been sick with a cold for a month now, but has not been able to get out of bed for three days. She has never been this sick in her life, and Bruce is moving her to my sister-in-law's house for a few days to see if she can improve.

The worst is that Natalie has no immune system to fight all the nastiness going around in this house, and has been sick on and off as long as Zack has. Somehow I only suffer slight congestion, a slight sore throat and the occasional cough, but with all of this we have realized several issues that have been contributing. Primarily the basement is the source. It's an unfinished basement, and I have been down there all of three times EVER for good reason. It's dank, with only an outdoor entrance, and with broken gutters, lots of water now ends up there. Obviously the furnace is down there, and though we would love to just replace the filter to clean the air upstairs, the furnace does not have a place to put a new filter because some genius decided to invent a "built-in" filter. One problem, buddy: when it stops working you have to replace the WHOLE FURNACE!* Everything in the air down in the basement is coming up through the vents- thus the sickness.

*side note: when I'm fired up I get sassy.

Anyway, the point is that our prayer focus has expanded. We're praying for provision, but with an emphasis on MERCY. None of us has felt well in months, and the situation is getting worse and worse at such a rapid rate that we need out desperately. It's a little unnerving because I hate that Natalie is suffering as well, so we're asking everyone to pray.

I'll be sure to keep you updated.

Carrie