Helping Hands

We have all heard this one - anything that can go wrong, will. Well apparently today was the day for that to be proven to me. As we got up for church this morning and I was drawing a bath for my son, I realized the water was not getting warm. That usually means one thing, the pilot light in our water heater has gone out. Knowing I didn't have time to go check things out in the attic I bathed him the old fashion way. I boiled water on the stove and added it to the tub. So the day goes on and church is over and we got back home and I decided to tackle the water heater issue. I climbed the ladder and attempted to re-light the pilot light. Thinking I had succeeded I made my way down and closed up the attic door. I then checked for hot water...Still no hot water. I called a good friend of ours and he advised that I wait for an hour or so for things to heat back up. An hour had passed and still no hot water. I didn't understand what was happening. So I decided to go back up into the attic and figure this thing out. The pilot light had gone out again, I was so frustrated....I tried to re-light it. As I pushed in the button for the pilot to light up, it blew up in my face. No, I don't mean smoke and things exploding but a flame shot out and water exploded all over my face. Of course I screamed thinking oh God my attic is about to blow. I quickly turned off everything and hurried down the ladder. I called my friend back and explained what happened, as I was talking to him I realized that my carpet was soaking wet in my bedroom near the closet. Mind you this all happened 30 minutes before we were supposed to leave for Sunday evening service. Not to mention that I had made a dessert for after church (the ladies were serving a dinner and I was aksed to bring a dessert). I called my pastor and explained the situation, he then sent some ladies to my house to retrieve the dessert upon my request. I was so distraught! Our friend came over and assessed the situation. Plain and simple, we need a new water heater. Of course this all has to happen to me while my husband is away on a deployment. Thankfully our friend has alot of knowledge and experience in this department and offered to install a new water heater for us, free of charge if we will just buy it. I was so relieved! I am so grateful today for good friends and church family. Having a support system in times like these is so precious! I will never take for granted the kindness of others~