Now that his family has a home in Mason’s Ridge, Jeremiah Lambright may start a youth group there.
It will be a lot easier for the associate youth pastor of Union Church in Avon Park, since his family has a new Habitat for Humanity home.
He and his wife, Natasha, and their two little girls, used to live in an Avon park trailer home, with a makeshift plywood floor, walls peeling off the studs, and an incredible electric bill. Their first summer, it was $400 per month. This was their fifth summer.
“The air-conditioner quit at the end of July,” Jeremiah Lambright said, right after his birthday. The family moved in with his mom for the last few months. “Then we found out (the trailer) was completely eaten up with termites.”
They lost their furniture, including some stereo equipment, but they have a new start.
It’s been a long road. Natasha Lambright said she struggled over this past year, and still struggles to believe she deserves the new house.
“My family, yes. Oh, my girls deserve a place they can call home. And my husband works so hard to support us, but me? No, not this girl,” Natasha Lambright said.
She thought a lot more people deserved a home more than she did. What kept her anchored was a Bible verse card from a friend’s desk quoting Matthew 7:8, “For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” It stayed with her.
“Every time I had doubt, when things didn’t go right and problems came our way, I stopped and prayed, and God reminded me of this verse,” Natasha Lambright said.
Vealda Lambright, Jeremiah’s mother, said she’s glad to see them get their own place, especially after a rough summer. She and her husband, Wayne, look forward to having them visit, she said, and coming to visit themselves, to play with their grand-daughters.
Sarah Pallone, executive director of Highlands Habitat, said it’s been a joy to have Natasha helping in the organization’s downtown Sebring office, to earn equity toward the home.
“She said she’d be willing to come help us (more),” Pallone said.
Their home is the 18th dedicated by Highlands County Habitat for Humanity in the organization’s Mason’s Ridge subdivision, off Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. It’s the second of two houses built and dedicated this year in the 1400 block of Inspiration Drive.
Pastor Ron DeGenaro of St. John United Methodist Church, Habitat board member, gave the couple a Bible “for use” daily as a guide, more important than the TV Guide was in his childhood home.
“Set your life on this,” DeGenaro advised them.
As with other homes, the Highlands County Quilt Guild, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and Habitat presented, respectively, a quilt for the children, an American flag and copy of the U.S. Constitution for the home, and a bag of cleaning supplies, to help maintain the “new house” feel.
Among the prayers and thanks, Jan Grove of the local DAR said, “I hope you will be happy here. I hope you will be patriotic here.”
Phil Attinger may be contacted at 863-386-5636, or phil.attinger@newssun.com and followed on Twitter @PhilAttinger.
– Article by Phil Attinger, Highlands News-Sun (link to article)