Really Bad Things Happen To Really Good People

Kathy and I are heartsick. On Sunday morning, Kathy saw a news report of damage from tornadoes near Washington, Illinois. Our dear friend, Cheryl Ingham, had moved to Washington in August of this year. Kathy immediately texted Cheryl to make sure she was okay and to check and see if she had any damage. Hey Cheryl. I just saw a report about storms and a posible tornado touching down near Peoria. Everything ok there? To our horror, Kathy received a text a few minutes later. House is gone, but we r safe.

We met Cheryl in Tucson. She was a member of the church that we served for a few months for half of 2012 and early 2013. We already knew about her because her brother and his family were members at the church we served in the Denver area. We loved her brother and his family and we quickly came to enjoy a great friendship with Cheryl when we met her. She and Kathy became close friends fairly quickly. When we moved to Illinois, Kathy was overjoyed to know that Cheryl would be moving to northern Illinois in the summer. Her son was a children's pastor at RockChurch in Washington, IL, and that was about two hours north of where we live in Carlinville. She wanted to be closer to her son, his wife and grandchildren. Soon after moving to Illinois, Cheryl came down and spent a couple of days with us.

If you read my blogs, you know I have never used this forum to solicit anything. This has been a place to share stories, thoughts, inspiration, but now, to share a huge need. Cheryl is a wonderful Christian lady who raised two sons while working as a school teacher. When you think of a "good" person, Cheryl would be near the top of that list. When "bad" things happen to "good" people, you would hope it never touched people like Cheryl. But it has happened. Cheryl's home, that she lived in for just 3 1/2 months, is a total loss. Her car was thrown several hundred feet and is also a total loss. Kathy and I are asking my blog readers to help us, help Cheryl. A website has been set up at www.gofundme.com. Please go to this site and search for Cheryl Ingham. You will be on the right site when you see the picture above. If we all do something to help Cheryl, we can meet the goal. Terrible things like this happen all around the world. When we hear about these things, we are concerned, and in some cases we donate money, but never know anyone personally affected. This is much different. This is our dear friend, who has been wiped out. Thanks in advance for your help. May God richly bless you as you help us bless our friend.