Deepa and her 19-year-old son, at left, and 4-year-old daughter standing by fragments of rock that slid down the slope behind their home

Rockin’ the House Down

A narrow escape for a widow causes her to lean on the faith of her son

Dear Friends,

BOOM! Deepa’s home shook violently, then went quiet. She cautiously peered into the next room of her small, cement-block home to see the cause: A huge boulder had tumbled down the rain-soaked slope behind her house and was now sitting inside her home—right where her 4-year-old daughter had been just moments earlier. It wasn’t the last rock to batter their home that day.

Deepa’s husband abandoned her right after their daughter was born, leaving her and their 15-year-old son to fend for themselves. Then last fall came torrential rains that damaged many homes in their village in Sri Lanka, an island nation just off the southern tip of India, including hers.

Hearing of the plight of Deepa and other believers in her area from a trusted Heaven’s Family partner working among them, the Disaster Relief Ministry sent $2,000 to help rebuild their homes.

Here is what’s left of one of the boulders that slid down from the mountain and through their house. They’ve broken up the boulder and actually reused pieces of it to rebuild their walls (not seen in this photo)!

Deepa’s faith in the Lord had been wavering over the past few years, but through this disaster that nearly cost her the life of her daughter and the lives of her and her son—as well as the help she received from her spiritual family through Heaven’s Family—she has new reasons to be thankful and trust in Him.

Her son’s faith is stronger. After the avalanche that nearly destroyed their home, I’m told he said these words: “God can take everything. We just need Jesus.” Amen.

Because of Him,

Jeff Trotter
Director, Disaster Relief Ministry

A note about the Ecuador earthquake: Many of you have probably heard about this month’s earthquake in Ecuador. Whenever I hear of a major disaster in one of the poor, developing nations of the world, I go through the following checklist: 1. Has it caused significant damage and/or loss of life (there are too many small disasters around the world each year to act upon with our limited time and resources), 2. Does Heaven’s Family have a trusted partner on the ground there whom we can work through right away, 3. Are there other ministries such as ours that we can partner with and will they provide us with reliable accounting, photos and stories, 4. Should I board a plane as soon as possible to get our eyes and ears on the situation (or is the situation too unstable or uncertain to provide any meaningful help to victims at that time), and 5. Is the Lord leading us to act upon the need. In the case of Ecuador, the answer to questions 2-5 was “no.” I hope this helps you to understand the Disaster Relief Ministry better. As always, I appreciate your prayers for me during times of disaster, so that I as director of this ministry would have the wisdom, direction and resources needed to respond as God would have us.