EMERGENCY FUND

There is now an emergency fund set up for my sister Teresa's family who lost everything to a fire last Friday.

If you would like to help the info is:

The Finely Family Fund
Renasant Bank

Thanks so much to all of you for the kind words, prayers and helping hands

MY SISTER'S HOME BURNED TO THE GROUND

Last Friday my sister Teresa’s home burned to the ground. They lost everything, including both dogs that were sleeping in the back bedroom. Luckily Teresa, Randy, and their son Quin got out OK; but it was a close call.

Randy (who is self employed and works at home) was working in his office located in the front of their trailer while Teresa and Quin were in the living room, when Teresa heard the smoke alarm go off. Thinking the battery had gotten low she walked down the hall to check when she noticed smoke next to the ceiling. She heard a clicking noise in her son’s bedroom and just as she looked in the door the bedding and curtains burst into flames.

She ran back down the hall yelling fire; grabbing her purse and fleeing out in the freezing cold with Quin, both of them with no shoes or coats. Randy is self employed and managed to grab his hard drive with all his business records but nothing else. Thank goodness they also had their phone and were able to dial 911 for help.

The house was engulfed in flames in minutes, a total loss. Later the fire department said it was an electrical fire that had started inside the wall. That’s why it spread so fast. The fire was in the walls of several rooms before ever breaking out into the open where it was noticeable.

Lucky it happened in the daytime. If it had happened at night, Quin would have died for sure and probably the entire family would have perished. They lost everything. We’ve been digging through the rubble and found a few things. It’s amazing what will survive a total burn down. Teresa had an antique chest that was totally charred, but everything inside only suffered smoke damage. We managed to find some heirloom silver and it appears that lots of her family pictures might be salvageable. Also, several of our Mom’s old Christmas ornaments survived with only some blackening and might be restorable.

The extended Waters & Finely families and our wonderful friends have been rallying around. Teresa’s family is staying with my youngest sister Lana, who inherited our old family home after our parent’s deaths, and are regrouping. They didn’t have a penny of insurance and it’s going to be an uphill battle to replace their loss.

This is to thank everyone for their help and to remind each and every one of you to check the batteries in your smoke detectors; they can truly save your life. I just went and bought two brand new ones, mine are old and it’s been a wake up call for all of us.

WTF!!!!!!!!!!

Last March, three American evangelical Christians, whose teachings about “curing” homosexuals have been widely discredited in the United States, arrived here in Uganda’s capital to give a series of talks ....... a previously unknown Ugandan politician, who boasts of having evangelical friends in the American government, introduced the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009, which threatens to hang homosexuals, and, as a result, has put Uganda on a collision course with Western nations.

Like we don't have enough trouble here, now we got to go stir up bigotry somewhere else!