So what's the deal?

A couple of months ago, Rich went to Berkots in town here and as he approached the door to get into the store, there was a lady in front of the store with a table set up asking for donations. Rich inquired what was going on and got the story. Her husband has terminal colon cancer. He asked for her name and phone number and made a generous do Mind you, Rich never does this. Typically, Rich would walk right by something like that. So stopping to talk to the lady, let alone leave a donation and ask her for her phone number was not his normal thing to do.

With 40 days of Community, at church we were asked to step outside our comfort zone. So Rich and I thought about this family and presented it to our small group. It never got off the ground.

Then in November - came the ultimate opportunity with the Kingdom Assignment. Rich called the family and here is what is going on.

• The father, Marty - has stage 4 terminal colon cancer. Bonnie, his wife drives him back and forth 100 miles to a local hospital here 1 -3 days a week for chemo treatments in a car that is junk.
• Currently Marty is receiving disability of less than $1,500 a month.
• Marty was a union carpenter until 9/11 but lost his job. He started working on his own until he got this illness. So there is no insurance coverage.
• Medical bills exceed $500,000
• Medicaid wants to take their house to offset the medical costs
• The mortgage went from $900 a month to $1100 - on a balloon
• $175 in food stamps to feed a family of 5. They go to a food bank once a month to supplement what they get from food stamps.
• Children are 3, 7 9 & 14
• No other relatives can help - both Marty and Bonnie's parents are deceased. An aunt is on a fixed income , Bonnie's brother is incarcerated and her older son has 4 small chldren.
• Roof on their house is leaking

Bonnie does a little dog grooming on the side for cash. But because of the system they can not earn up to a certain dollar amount a year with out losing their benefits.