Charle’s Story

Charles and his family are part of the population of 15,000 people living below poverty in the 5 county area. They are also part of the population that is called the rural poor and are easy to not see. They suffer from yet another difficulty and that is they are at least second generation poverty. All of this adds up to a desperate and grim future. Charles was never able to enlist in the service as he has always suffered from serious health problems, his wife however was in the service and now suffers with health issues of her own and their 14 year old daughter in many ways has to help do things a child should not have to.

Freedom Builders was called in to help by an area service agency when all government and social service agencies had exhausted all their resources. When we went to visit in the home it was the worst situation that I had visited to that point, it was in middle of winter and Charles and his family were living in half of an old trailer. The reason they lived in half of the trailer was that they could only afford to heat half of the trailer. When I arrived they were just moving the couch trying to find a spot on the floor that the legs would not fall through the floor. They had stapled wires to the wall to keep from having an electrical fire, because the roof had leaked so bad that the water had migrated into the wiring causing it to short out. The good news is that the house probably cannot burn because the home was so wet nothing can burn.

The bad news was that after looking at the entire situation there was nothing that we could do to make it better, the deteriorating condition had went on so long that there was nothing to build on. We then had to look at how we might be able to assist them in trying to find another home but that brought with it an entire new set of problems. When I left the last thing I had to tell Charles was that I did not know where we were going next, what Charles said next to me moved me to tears. He told me that he really appreciated what we were doing; I told him that I was not sure we were going to be able to do anything.

That’s when he said that we cared enough to come to his home and see where they lived and how they had to live. That’s when I began to understand that the greatest gift was to be a friend that could walk with them. And in a small way would be the “Arms of Christ” and try to give back a little bit of hope that comes from the Lord and knowing that even in the midst of disaster that the God of the universe loved and cared for them. Charles and his family should never be a burden to the body of Christ but looked upon as a new opportunity to serve Christ.