Would You Believe It?

I'm at it again. I'm doing another freelance proofreading job. And it's another rush job. I picked it up on Friday and it has to be back no later than noon on Friday. This was printed in the US and is in nearly pristine condition, so it's much less challenging than some of those printed overseas. In fact it was printed in Crawfordsville, Indiana, and being a Hoosier by birth, I'm proud to tell you it was printed there. That's probably why it was done so well, don't you think? Those Hoosiers are something else! Ha!

You will probably remember that I talked a lot about our winter that was very cold, very snowy, and went on and on. About two or three months ago I noticed a sound is if it were the sound of running water on another level in the house, each time I was in my bathroom. I looked throughout the house at every faucet, etc. and could find no water running. Yesterday afternoon as I worked in the lower level of my house, something drew my attention to an inner wall. I went over to look at it more closely. As I did, I could tell that the sound of running water was coming from inside that wall. My heart sank! I knew immediately what it was. There is a pipe that runs through that wall to an outside spigot. Several winters ago, that pipe burst during the winter, but that time I found out in the spring the first time I turned on the hose and flooded the basement. Some men from church came and cut a hole into the wall to get at the broken pipe. They also changed the outside spigot to a frostproof one. Well apparently the spigot didn't know it was supposed to be frostproof.

Since I didn't discover this mess until about 5:00 Saturday afternoon, and since the water has been running for months, I decided not to make a plumber come at that hour on Saturday, since it would be much more expensive for him to come on Saturday evening. I now have someone scheduled to come tomorrow to take care of this mess.

But there is more to this story than that. Several years ago, I had to have that end of the house rebuilt due to structural damage caused by carpenter ants. The repair company literally had to cut away the back wall and ceiling. When they did so, there were thousands of carpenter ants between the inner and outer wall. I had an exterminator come out twice. The construction company pulled out all of the wet, ruined wood and replaced it, replastered everything, and I thought things were good. However I had noticed many larvae on my white living room carpet this week. I asked myself how the carpenter ants could be back when everything inside that wall is now dry. Ha! I wish it were dry. Now I understand the appearance of those larvae.

Well I've told you this whole story not for you to have a pity party for me, which you probably wouldn't do anyway, but so that you'll pray with me. Ask the Lord to help me accept this as a good gift from Him, which I have to confess, it doesn't feel like. Also pray that the damage inside the walls will prove to be minimal. And pray that I'll be able to use this incident to glorify the Lord.

I also need to give you an update on Craig Throop. He is now in Hong Kong with his daughter, where he was to have his kidney stone blasted. His wife and two other children from PNG are to meet Craig and Amy in Hong Kong this week. From there they will continue on to the States for a brief furlough. Pray that the blasting of the kidney stone will have been successful and that he will quickly regain his strength. Pray too that their short furlough will be a restful one for them all. This term has been a very stressful one for them in PNG. Thank you for praying for the entire Throop family.