As many of you probably already know (via Facebook), our townhome [was] destroyed by a fire during Texas's deep winter freeze mid-February...
Wycliffe Bible Translators
P Y L E F A M I L Y
Our House Fire
March 2021
"For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." -- 2 Corinthians 5:1
As many of you probably already know (via Facebook), our townhome and the townhomes of many of our neighbors were destroyed by a fire during Texas's deep winter freeze mid-February. (You can watch some brief NBC news coverage here.) We praise God that no lives were lost or physically harmed. It has been amazing to see how God has provided for us during and on the other side of the loss of our home and most of our earthly belongings.
Even though we didn't willingly give up our home, these words of Jesus ring true to us concerning the abundance of care that members of the body of Christ should expect in the context of much loss: When Peter said, “See, we have left everything and followed you," Jesus replied, “Truly I say to you... everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life." (adapted from Matthew 19:27-29, ESV).
The past month has been like drinking God's love through a firehose: so many friends and family, and brother and sisters in Christ have responded so quickly! For one thing, we have a new (rented and furnished) place to stay (6663 Nyman Dr, Dallas, TX 75236). Allison and I and our kids have received an overflowing amount of donations of clothes, words of encouragement, toys, books and monetary gifts. We are so proud of how our children have handled everything. Every day has been like Christmas for them. People have also been bringing us meals, and we have been blessed to received some extra help with watching our kids. We also give thanks for the caring response of our insurance (Amica), our home church (Colleyville PCA) along with many other churches, and also from our work organizations (Wycliffe, SIL, United Bible Societies and Dallas International University) and from support groups like MOPS.
Likewise we are thankful that our neighborhood HOA board has helped provide resources for affected homeowners and has established a Fire Recovery Advocacy Committee to help us get connected to the answers and resources (e.g. from the City of Duncanville) that we need to rebuild. We expect this process may take a year since it involves coordinating home designs with shared walls.
Please pray for us to be able to handle and prioritize so many things right now, from paperwork for insurance (e.g. itemizing all that was lost) and applying for identification papers like birth certificates, to managing all the incoming donations and boxes, and keeping our current home livable. Help with meals and with the care of our three children (including Sarah who is doing second grade remotely) has been especially important during this time.
Please also pray that we will get timely answers to our questions from the city and that our neighbors will all be able to work together to rebuild in an effective manner.
Continue to pray for Eric's work project, the Digital Bible Library, to be better staffed and that services will remain operational.
