God Provides A Firm Foundation After Earthquake

Melvin and Carrie are enjoying retirement in beautiful Alaska.  Both served in the US Army. Mel served four and a half years, while Carrie went on to serve twenty.              
        
Melvin says, “I’m proud of her. I’m proud of the 20 years that she served. And she was a great soldier at work and at home.”            
        
Their peaceful lives were disrupted when a 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit anchorage. The epicenter was only a few miles from their home.              
        
Melvin explains, “It felt like someone picked up our house and was shaking it violently. Everything in the house just begin to fall - TVs, dressers, glass shattering. It was pretty traumatic.”        
        
As Melvin and Carrie picked through what was left of their belongings, they were alarmed at the extent of damage to the structure of their home.
            
Carrie remembers, “I knew it was bad, but when I start going room by room seeing it, I mean cracks in the ceiling, cracks on the walls, cracks in the garage. I looked at all the cracks and I’m like, this was really bad.”        
    
The couple faced another blow when they learned that their homeowner’s insurance policy covered some, but not all of the repairs. Once tallied up, they had tens of thousands of dollars of out-of-pocket expenses. Money they didn’t have. Rather than go into debt, they decided to live with the damage.            
    
Melvin says, “I would love to fix it, but there's really nothing that we can do at this point. We're not on a timetable because we don't have the resources to do it.”

After hearing about Mel and Carrie’s financial challenges, New Season Church in Anchorage asked Helping the Home Front to provide support. We contacted Home Depot and asked if they wanted to join us in assisting the couple.               
        
Assistant Manager Jon says, “We are super excited with the partnership with CBN. It’s been an awesome rollercoaster because we’ve been excited for this family and want to give back to them. We just want to do what we do best.”
            
Pastor Tommy Leonard told the couple some big news: “CBN is going to take care of all your contractors and make sure that your home is made whole. What are your thoughts about that?

Carrie responds, “God is faithful.”

Pastor Tommy replies, “Amen. Amen. There’s more! Home Depot has donated all of the supplies needed in order to paint your home, your cabinets, your doors. And today, we are going to Home Depot. There's a team of people waiting to be there to help serve you and meet the need of making sure that your house is fully complete.”
            
Melvin responds, “This is too much! We had a conversation, "I don't know how he's gonna do it, but we know he's gonna do it." 

Pastor Tommy replies, “Praise God.”

Melvin: "Hallelujah! Thank you, Lord."

They headed to Home Depot where a team greeted them and helped the couple begin the process of getting their house back to normal. Contractors went to work and soon, Melvin and Carrie’s home was completely restored.            
        
Carrie says, “It's beyond my wildest dreams. I could have never imagined that something like this would happen.”
            
Melvin concludes, “I'm overwhelmed. Overwhelmed. And overjoyed because this is amazing.”