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The 2004 Christmas
Joy Offiering insert published by Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
highlights the John Welch family (Pittsburgh Presbytery)
and the joy that was shared with them after a diastrous
fire struck their home last December.
"You
Shared Our Joy"
Life
was hectic enough for the Welch family last December.
The week before Christmas is always a busy time for any
household, especially a pastor’s family. To add more complication,
the following weekend would be John Welch’s official ordination
and installation as pastor of the church he’d been serving
for four years. But three nights before Christmas, things
got crazier in a hurry. At 11:30, his sons were enjoying
the Christmas break freedom to stay up playing computer
games when they smelled smoke.
By
the time they woke up the rest of the family, it was too
late to save the house, but everyone made it out safely.
Yes, things got crazy quickly, but on another level they
got simple pretty fast: “We realized how blessed we were
that God had kept us all safe,” John says. “We realized
that on a school night, maybe we wouldn’t have been alerted
in time.” Firefighters surprised his wife, DeNeice, by handing
her a wedding ring they’d salvaged from her dresser—and
a ring she’d planned to give John at his installation.
The
smoking ruins indicated the obvious—no house, no furnishings,
no clothes but what they had been wearing. Even the suit
John had bought for his ordination service was gone. The
living room and dining room furniture they had only recently
bought and the family car in the garage had been destroyed.
Luckily, they still had transportation—the garage had been
too full with the discarded furniture for their SUV, so
it was safe outside.
But
the church gathered around the family to help ensure that
they had what they needed during this challenging time.
Church members helped make the connections with the Red
Cross, which put the family up in a hotel for several days.
The Presbytery called the Board of Pensions, which sent
a Christmas Joy Offering emergency grant the following week
as a stopgap while the Welches were waiting for insurance
money to come through. “The support from the church, both
locally and nationally, was an overwhelming blessing,” John
recalls. “So when the installation came off as planned,
it was a real time of celebration. Having walked with us
and prayed with us over a long period of time while I was
preparing for my ordination exams, the church shared in
our joy even as they let us know they’d continue to be there
for us.”
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