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The following is an edited version of my cover letter for the October-November Feed My Sheep mailing which will hopefully go to the printer tomorrow. Obviously, I am sure you all understand why we could not get an October issue of Feed My Sheep (FMS) produced, nor a new lecture for the CD Ministry, nor could I attend/teach at the Feast of Tabernacles Conference in Minneapolis. Oh, how I missed seeing so many of our friends who were there!
But we are still reeling from the effects of the HHH (Hellish Hurricane Hellene).
Many things have changed in the past eight weeks. Towards the end of September, we still had a few (big) things left in the old office.
But Tim (the landlord) was gracious to assure me that it was no big deal and we could take to the end of the month and even into early October, since he was planning to have workmen replace the 18-year old carpet and, of course, to repaint all the walls.
But that all was violently disrupted when on Friday, September 27th “all hell broke loose” with the arrival of the HHH.
We lost power immediately and cell phone towers were soon out of service. Of course, that meant no internet service, and no phone service, period, since almost no one has a literal landline anymore, and we had obtained an internet (Vonage) “landline;” i.e., a desk phone with no texting or other mobile phone capabilities. About a day later, our neighborhood lost water service.
On Sunday, I evacuated to my brother John’s house near Raleigh and stayed with him as a literal refugee until two full weeks from the date of the HHH. I knew from restored mobile comms with one of my neighbors that both power and water had then been restored.
During the two weeks as a refugee, I was able to keep blogging from John’s house.
I gave thanks to the Father when I got home for preserving many lives and that I still had a home. However, the enormity of my additional challenges was front and center. First of all, I was/am so grateful that I and everyone I knew locally were alive and uninjured.
Secondly, that no trees had fallen on my house, as had happened to many thousands of residents in Western NC. I had no flood damage. The rising waters of the small creek behind my house had risen about four feet but that brought the flood waters only about 15 feet into my back yard and did not come close to my back porch. So no flood damage.
That is to be distinguished from storm damage. Unless one has a special insurance rider or flood insurance through the federal government, there is no coverage afforded by the normal homeowner’s insurance.
But I did have quite a bit of storm damage from water intrusion, etc. My roof had sprung a leak in a couple of places. Some of my vinyl siding had come off on a second story gable, leaving a couple large (fist-sized) openings in the Styrofoam insulation board and lots of rainwater came in.
Moreover a very large picture window on the second story in my foyer had given in to the winds and the horizontal sheets of water pounding it.
All of the above combined, resulted in significant water damage to the drywall ceilings and walls in my master bedroom, master bathroom, spare bedroom, foyer, dining room, family room, and kitchen.
Given the catastrophic damage to tens of thousands of properties in WNC, it took a very long time in just getting an insurance adjuster to my house, let alone getting repair work started. It’s going to be a long process.
But progress is being made. The roofing and siding company that replaced my shingle roof seven years ago came out and replaced the vinyl siding, cleaned the gutters, and assured me they fixed the roof leaks.
We had no rain since the HHH, except a drizzle yesterday and today (Nov. 4th) so I really won’t know for sure that the leaks are sealed until we get some really hard rain which lasts a couple hours or so.
I have some mold in the insulation between the trusses above the master bath, and I am now ready to have that ripped out, get the affected area treated to kill the mold, and have the drywall ceiling replaced and repainted in the master bath.
The rainwater intrusion from the missing Styrofoam and from the large picture window in the foyer caused the need to replace drywall ceilings in the upstairs bedroom, in the dining room and part of the walls of both, but no sign of mold there.
I have two bids (so far) to replace that big window (~$7,500 !!!). Talk about sticker shock! I have been out of the construction industry for nearly 35 years, but that blew me away.
What is much worse is that the insurance adjuster was insistent that my homeowner’s insurance would not cover the window, although they would cover the drywall replacement below it! To add insult to injury, it will take 8-10 weeks to get that window replaced—again, because everybody in WNC is in need of home repairs. Ugh!
Anyhow, I will spare you any further details here, but I am grateful to those of you who have already sent sacrificial gifts to me to assist in getting repairs made. It is going to be weeks in the process as I cannot replace the damaged drywall in the foyer until I get the new window installed.
I am reluctant to ask, but more financial help would be appreciated. And if you are able, please make checks payable to me personally, not SKM; otherwise, if it goes into the SKM account, I will end up paying taxes on it. Gotta love that Mystery Babylonian financial system, right?!
As for my office, we are on the second floor, and even the offices on the first floor of our building had no storm damage. However, less than a mile down the street there was tremendous damage to businesses and to one of our Fletcher fire stations.
We almost lost two firemen during the immediate aftermath of the HHH. (I sit on the Board of Directors of the Fletcher Fire and Rescue department.) They had gone down to one of our two satellite stations to save what could be saved.
Our propane tank there had washed away and the waters were rising to four feet at that station. That’s when they almost got swept away. They were rescued though, praise God! Nevertheless, the station was a total loss, along with one fire engine and much valuable firefighting equipment.
We have nearly filled a big (and empty) dumpster at our office with just the broken down cardboard boxes from our move! And although I cannot spend much time right now in getting it reorganized, my assistants, Sandy and Jesse, are working diligently to get us up and running.
By the way, may I address a small issue here? It concerns a few of the persons who sought to be enrolled in our Mighty Network (MN). To become enrolled (via clicking on Resources on our website), we have a simple question that we ask in order to screen/vet the applicant.
We simply ask: How did you hear about us? If from another ministry or organization, please give us the name. If from some individual, please tell us their name.
Even with that clear request, some people answer, “My mom,” or “My brother,” or “a friend” !! That does not help us at all. We are trying to keep out of the MN anyone who has an intent to create dissension, conflict, etc. We know that the wicked have their minions who monitor what this ministry does.
To be sure, we want to give people the benefit of the doubt. So that even if a “newbie” is surfing the web and discovers SKM, and they don’t know anyone associated with our ministry, and they request to enroll in the MN, we will usually allow them in.
But we will also have to monitor the Comments made by our members to watch for those whose comments seem to be stirring up trouble. But it is getting harder and harder for me to find time to read all the Comments.
I’m not trying to discourage your comments; not at all. But I do hope it becomes a self-policing platform, with all members encouraging Christian charity and respect for differing opinions.
With a couple of the persons who answered our vetting question, how did you hear about us, and they responded, “My mom” or “a friend,” we have taken the trouble to send them an email and ask them point blank, what is your mom’s / friend’s name?
We got no response, so we simply denied their request to access the MN. So, dear readers, if you happen to recommend the MN to anyone (and we hope you do), please be sure to tell them about the above. Also, be advised that within the MN, there is no anonymity. All members making comments must use their real name.
In our September cover letter we gave you a new mailing address which was our street address and suite number. We soon discovered that the outdoor mailbox at our street address does not provide much moisture protection (it is a community mailbox for the whole office complex).
So we have rented a post office box in Fletcher. Therefore, please note that our new and permanent mailing address is: PO Box 9, Fletcher, NC 28732. (I love that single digit number!) Also, please dispose of any pre-addressed envelopes to the old PO Box: 5695.
Tomorrow is election day. As in 2020, we expect Trump will win in a landslide. I am still persuaded by tons of evidence that he did win 2020, but it was part of the plan (and ultimately, of God’s overarching Plan) to let the wicked do what they do. This was allowed in order to let America see how evil they are. We speak not of your nice neighbors who might be run-of-the-mill Democrats.
But we are speaking of the committed communists and other Christ-haters who have indeed taken off their masks in the past four years. They have openly shown their insanity and wickedness in countless ways.
To note just a few: men in women’s sports, transgender abominations, and the LGBT “pride.” They flaunt their sins without the least bit of shame. They relish rubbing their perversions in the faces of Christian America.
A recent poll by George Barna showed that upwards of about 30% of Christian evangelicals do not even vote. (Ditto with a similar percentage of the NRA.) If they did vote, Trump would easily win massively despite all the cheating that they could muster.
It does not surprise me that such a huge portion of evangelicals do not vote. It is the fruit of the tree of Scofieldian dispensational theology. The attitude among them that I don’t have to worry because God’s going to rapture me out of this mess before it gets really bad. Oh, how deceived these brethren are! Father-God, please open their eyes to that great deception!
I have prayed (and worked extensively locally) to have righteousness restored in our land with this election. I am also aware that the wicked ones will not go down without a most ferocious fight. Because it is an existential fight on both sides. Light vs. darkness.
I pray daily for the safety of all of you and for God to turn our nation back to Him. That includes adherence to His law for the land! May God save us all! We thank you for your patience as we ramp back up in the FMS mailings and the CD Ministry.
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