God Does Amazing Things Even When We Don't Know He's at Work

God does amazing things, even when we don’t know that He is at work.

This has been a very snowy winter here in Indiana. The snow that collected in the parking lot and driveway by the headquarters was piled up on either side of the lot, one side against the fence, and the opposite side against the garage in which the CFP Holy Angels Gift Shop and CFP office are located. The garage door was supposed to be removed and replaced with a wall, but that did not happen because the state of Indiana wants the plans for the renovation and completion of the garage to meet state standards and include a handicapped accessible bathroom because Confraternity members, other than those who live on the property, may be working in the shop and office at some point. Plans for the renovation are at the state being approved. Meanwhile, the gift shop and CFP office are in the partially renovated garage and are functioning.

Last week Bob, one of our Confraternity of Penitents’ members, stopped by the CFP headquarters and said that he had extra shelving that he had picked up from a demolition job he had done last year. This was in storage at his shop and he knew that we needed more shelving for the Confraternity of Penitents Holy Angels Gift Shop and wondered if we would want it. We certainly did want it! We needed it because many religious items had been given to us from Good Shepherd Gift Shop which had gone out of business at Christmas time 2012. These items were in boxes on the floor, for the most part, and on some tables. Shelving would enable us to remove the items from the boxes, put them on the Internet site, and be able to see them to fill orders as they came in.

Bob took two days to complete the shelving, sturdy metal shelving that goes up about 6 feet. He made the first shelf about six or 8 inches from the floor and then went up from there. On the first day, Kay Marie, gift shop manager, and I transferred items from tables to shelves and to other tables so that Bob would have room to work. When he went home, we then transferred items from the tables to the new shelving. The second day Bob completed the shelving. Then, because Bob is a great man, he picked up the remaining boxes that were on the floor and put them on the shelves.

Bob did leave on the floor the boxes of used books which we had piled up out of his way next to the garage door. But the Confraternity is having a Day of Recollection on March 1, and people are always looking for good reading materials for Lent. So it seemed reasonable to take the used books they are and see if they might be useful to those attending. Wanting to price them, because some people are stymied if you tell them to give a donation of their choice, Jim and I brought the books into the house on Friday and Saturday so that they could be priced.

The Great Melt started here on Tuesday as the temperatures began to rise above freezing for the first time in many weeks. We did not anticipate the problems that this might cause.

On Tuesday night, something was being repaired on the sidewalk at the neighbor’s house. Huge trucks dug up the sidewalk and whatever was underneath it and replaced the entire pavement with gravel and dirt. This happened when we, along with CFP Member Jackie, were praying Evening Prayer and Night Prayer around 8:00 PM in the in house prayer chapel that faces the street. The men working surely noticed our lit candles and us at prayer as we were facing the street. We wondered if a water main had broken and was being repaired.

On Wednesday morning, when Kay Marie left the house to go to work in the gift shop, she came back in stating that there was a huge puddle of water at the bottom of the steps into the driveway and that the driveway was flooded with ice. My husband Jim and I went out to investigate and we saw water rushing out from under a huge pile of snow in the parking lot to the left of this puddle, from the direction of the neighbor’s property. The water was a small stream, as if a faucet were turned on full blast, pouring into our parking lot and driveway and then flowing out down the street. We called the city of Fort Wayne, but the city said that since the water appeared to be coming from the neighbor’s property, they could do nothing about it. It was the neighbor’s issue.

So I visited the neighbor and explained to her about the problem, and she promised to tell her son about it. About 30 minutes later, the flow of water stopped. Of course, the driveway was still flooded and icy. So we waited a few hours as the temperature rose and the ice began to melt, and then Kay Marie went out to the garage where the gift shop is located to fill the orders for the day. She immediately phoned and said, “There are couple inches of water in here. The place is flooded.” 

Sure enough. Apparently two things happened. First the flow of water from the neighbor’s property, backed up by the snow and ice piled at that end of the parking lot, had flowed toward the shop and came in under the opening where the door would have been had the building been able to be completed. The other issue was that the four foot line of snow that was piled up against the garage door was melting and again, because the bottom layer of the snow was very icy, the flowing water took the path of least resistance which was under the garage door and into the shop.

But the Holy Spirit was looking out for us because there were only four boxes of religious goods on the floor, and this was because Bob had, not even a week before, put up the shelves and had put the items on them and because Jim and I had taken the used books into the house to price. As it was, the items at the top of the four boxes on the floor were not wet or damaged, so what had to be discarded was minimal. Jim put a sump pump into the shop to pump out the water, and I went in after supper and mopped up the floor. The floor dried overnight and was fine on Thursday.

But another problem faced us on Wednesday. What to do about the huge pile of melting snow up against the garage door? We called one of our Confraternity of Penitents affiliates Andy who has a tractor with a front scoop shovel and a back plow. Andy has been so kind as to come and plow our driveway and parking area several times with all the snows Fort Wayne has had. Andy does the plowing and many other jobs for so many people that the Poor Sisters of Saint Clare have nicknamed him Brother Fix-It Mary! After fixing a broken water pipe at a shopping center, Andy came on Wednesday afternoon and hauled away all the snow in front of the garage as well as the huge heap under which the neighbor’s water had been flowing. Jim and I shoveled the rest of the snow that was right next to the garage door where Andy’s plow could not safely reach. By the end of the day, all of the snow that had been abutting the garage door was now against the fence at one end of the parking lot or was piled up on the other side on the lawn away from the garage.

Following Andy’s suggestion about making a trench through the ice which he could not remove with the plow, and Kay Marie’s suggestion about using hot water to melt the ice and Jim’s suggestion about using a crowbar to chip away the ice, I made a channel through the ice so that the water that was backed up from the neighbor could flow through the inch of ice and down the driveway and into the street.

We went to bed praising God for His mercy and goodness. He had given us two good Confraternity friends to help us with this dilemma. One of them came before the melt began and put up the shelves that saved the merchandise. The other came to remove the four foot length of snow piled against the garage door. The melt had occurred on a weekday when Kay Marie goes into the shop to work. Had this happened on a Saturday night, she would not have discovered the flooding until Monday morning and it would have been much worse. In addition, because the garage slopes slightly toward the driveway, the water had not risen enough to travel back to the Confraternity library which is behind the shop but in the same room. About half of the library books are on the floor in boxes being sorted, and none of them were touched by water.

I am always amazed by how God’s hand works even when we don’t see it. In this case, He sent Bob in advance, and we are so grateful. He inspired me to take in the used books to prepare well in advance for the Day of Recollection, and we are so grateful. He made sure that the flow of water from the neighbor was stopped, and we are so grateful. He sent Kay Marie out to see what was going on, and we are so grateful. He sent Andy with a snow shovel, and we are so grateful. When you read this, thank Him for the mercy’s He has granted to you. May God be praised now and forever!

--Madeline Pecora Nugent