January 21, 1981, a day that changed forever

January 21, 1981 is a day that my family will never forget. It truly is the day that changed our lives forever. Until that day, we were your average good non-Christian family. My parents weren't bad people - no smoking, drinking, etc - they had just been backsliden for several years and weren't serving God. We went to Sunday school a couple of times a month, never staying for the sermon - Dad was afraid he would be convicted. We even attended a Christian school - my grandmother's doing. This same grandmother was praying  that my parents would get back to God at any cost. Those are scary words, and by all appearances, God took her up on it.

It isn't like my parents had no warnings. They had two, that I remember well. The first came in winter of 1980, I think late November. Our family was sound asleep, not knowing that in the living room, one of the logs piled for firewood for the wood burning stove had fallen, and burst a gas pipe that ran close-by, breaking it off, and allowing natural gas to shoot into the room, and fill the house. Something woke my dad - most likely God - and he immediately smelled gas - and a lot of it. The house was full of it. I still remember being awakened - and it wasn't easy in a gas filled house - being bundled up with my sisters and led outside to stand in the snow. Oddly enough, one of the burners was lit on the stove in the kitchen - a miracle that the place didn't blow up.

Warning #2 wasn't quite as outstanding, and happened on Christmas morning, 1980. As we were opening our gifts, someone noticed smoke - the wall in front of the chimney had caught on fire - a small fire, easily put out, and not leaving much damage. It was quickly forgotten about.

Then came January 21, 1981. I was at school, along with my sister Vicki. At some point during the day, shortly after lunch, the principal came to my classroom door, talked with my teacher briefly, then called me out into the hall. I figured I was in trouble - again, but then we went to my sister's classroom and called her out also. As our teachers stood there, he informed us that our house had burnt to the ground. Everything was gone. Thankfully, no one had been home.

My mom was there to take us home - but there was no home anymore. She drove the distance from New Bethlehem, PA to Rimersburg, PA. As we drove down the driveway, we could see the barn standing, untouched, but the large farmhouse was no more. Just a chimney sticking up above the ruins of the house and everything we had owned. I was just 4 months shy of my 12th birthday, and I was devastated, but looking back now, I see how hard it had to have been on my parents.

My grandparents lived down the road about two miles - she had been the one to spot the fire and call the fire department - and she invited us to move in with her. She had a couple of empty bedrooms, especially since my grandpa was in the hospital, and had been for some time.

We had no insurance - ironically, my parents had recently canceled it. Word got out quickly. By the time we went to bed that evening, the one room was half filled with things people had dropped off. People we knew, and people we had never even met. We all had pjs to wear to bed. And stuff kept coming in the days and weeks to come. Used stuff, new stuff, money. Churches gave, individuals.

It hit my parents hard, and really caused my dad to think about getting back to God. Nine days after  the fire, though it wasn't unexpected, my grandpa died - and that was the proverbial straw - Dad prayed on his way home from work, and our lives were never the same. Twenty-nine years later, I can still remember what went through my mind "great, now we will have to go to church all the time! - and we did - and still do. We lived with my grandmother from January 21, to August of that year, when we finally moved into our own place again.

The cause of the fire was figured to be the woodburner being hooked up to an old chimney that couldn't handle it - something the landlord had put in, not us.

My parents always believed - and still do - that the fire didn't just happen - God used it to bring a family back to Him in answer to my grandma's prayers.