Over the past few days, God has shown me that pride is not something good. I have refused for 7 years now to ask for help from anyone, because I was too proud. Today our Minister had us read 1Peter 5:5, he had us take special note to the last sentence in that verse, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble". That hit me pretty hard.
So here I am, my family is in need of help, and I am swallowing my pride and asking for help for my family. What you are about to read is a story that could happen to anyone. We ask that you please take the time to read the following letter and if you are able, please give a donation. Even just $1.00 can add up. You can also help by passing our story along to your friends.
Anyway, here is as short a version as possible of our story, you can read more on our web site at, www.thejoyofhope.org.
Our story began in June of 2000 when Dan went down a flight of stairs the wrong way, and injured his back. The injury was bad enough that the work Dan had always done, (16 years), he could no longer do. At that time we had an antique and collectible business that was doing very well, but the injury prevented us from being able to do needed work, and we could no longer continue that venture either. WE turned to the Social Security system, but they only changed his work history to suite their needs and be able to deny his claim, and an appeal was useless. Through it all, we lost our house, and our credit, but not the ability or will to make money and survive.
We found a nice farm house to move to and started to rebuild our lives. We got a paper route which was something we could both do together, that did not put too much stress on either of our backs, (I already had a back problem from an injury 25 years ago), we also cleaned the church once a week. That was nice because the kids were able to help us whenever we were having trouble with our backs. In between those jobs we started an online business of Affiliate Marketing and web design.
After living in the farm house for 4 years, we all started getting very sick, and could not get better. We all would run high fevers, and constantly have a flu type cold. I started having severe pains throughout my body, to the point I could no longer help Dan clean the Church, or deliver the papers. After about two months of this, one day while cleaning our bedroom, we moved our bed and found mold growing on the carpet under it, and black mold all along the walls.
We tried to help the owner remidiate the mold, but it was all throughout the house, and would have cost tens of thousands of dollars. The house had been sold to a developer and was going to be torn down, so that was not an option, and we had to move. Unfortunately, we had to leave almost all of our belongings behind, furniture, clothes, toys, etc. Of course our health was in bad shape from the mold, which we determined was there when we first moved in. So we had lived with it for almost 5 years!
The next house we moved into, was a new modular, and we were one of the first to live in it in the summer, so we were the first to find out the house was not put together properly, so all our air conditioning was going under the house, instead of inside the house. It cost a fortune to cool a crawl space, and does nothing to the heat in the house, no matter what you do. The owner of this house refused to make the repairs needed, because it would cost too much, and be a lot of work to get it all fixed right. So we had to leave there because the air quality was horrible because of the problem, plus myself and our handicapped teen, cannot deal with a lot of heat, and we had numerous heat strokes all through out last summer from the excessive heat.
Because of the mold at the farm making us so sick, (we still suffer from it), we cannot seem to find a house that doses not in some way make us sick. We searched 6 months for a house in Indiana, before coming to the conclusion that God wanted us out of the Midwest because of how severely allergic we had become to molds, and chemicals from the exposure we had for so long on the farm. So we left Indiana, and traveled across the Country in a van with 200,000 miles on it, our kids, cat and what we were able to fit on top of the van and in the back. We ended up in a small town in Southern Colorado and rented a house that appeared to fit our needs. At least until there was a water leak, and the repair man put off fixing it for weeks, and left us to do the best we could, and dry it up. Unfortunately, before it all dried mold began to grow, and now there is a problem here too. We’ve had to turn our water to the water heater on and off every night, (this was where the leak was coming from), for the past 6 weeks now! We withheld our rent for August, in an attempt to get someone to fix the water heater, as well as hook up our furnace, because it gets cold in these mountains sometimes at night. Unfortunately all that got us, was being told that we will never be satisfied with this house, and that we needed to be out by September first! This all took place almost two weeks ago, and still no repairs have been made and still we are fighting the leaky water heater and Dan and I are doing our best to keep every thing dry and to make sure the mold gets no worse than it is now.
It is pretty clear to us at this point, that we are never going to get away from mold in rentals, and we need something of our own that we can make repairs on when needed. However a house is not the answer because of how easy mold can grow. Our next option is an RV, which is the best option at this point, because on top of everything else we have gone through, we lost 50% of our Internet income this past Tuesday! If we had an RV, we could get a work camper job to get us through the winter season, and next summer season, while we work on gaining new Internet clients. Since we lost the income this week, we no longer have enough money to make our monthly bills, and we especially do not have enough to move on, and at this point, we are looking at out tent once again as home. Unfortunately, campgrounds do not allow workers who are tenting, plus the cold is coming, and a tent will no longer be an option.
So we are seeking help in securing an RV. If 10,000 people gave only a dollar each, we could get a travel trailer and would own our own mold free home. If 50,000 people or less donate just $1.00, we could buy a mold free, non leaking class A RV that would take care of our needs for years to come, perhaps the rest of our lives. Give us a means by which to make an income, (work camping), which will in turn provide the means by which to travel the country and start a mass education on the dangers of mold and bring awareness to those who need to learn what it can do to you. There is more info on our dream to help others on our web site at, www.thejoyofhope.org.
We are not lazy people who want a hand out, we are poor, but we work very hard, often times putting in 12 hours per day and barely making enough for rent and food. Work camping or even parking, we would not only have a place to live, we could support ourselves even in the hard times because space is cheap and comes with utilities. We don’t want help to support us the rest of our lives, we don’t want a hand out, we need a hand up. We are the man Jesus spoke of who was beat up and robbed, and left lying on the side of the road, and a Samaritan came by and helped him. We have lost everything due to mold and our need to move, and are struggling hard to make ends meet. We need a Samaritan.
We want to thank everyone who reads this, and reaches out to help our family. You are a Blessing to us, and we are ever so grateful to you for caring enough to help. May God always Bless you.
Blessings to all,
Carmella and Dan Dunkin
If you would like to help us buy an RV, you can do so buy clicking on the donation button below. If you have a used RV you want to donate, then Praise God, and God Bless you!
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