We moved into our present home the week of Christmas, 1994. The years before had been extremely tough. In the 80's we had our own business, The Power Company, which failed after a series of TV Evangelists scandals. Our business was tied to helping ministries and after the Swaggart and PTL mockery in the 80's, all ministries suffered. We went down with it, experienced much loss -- home, car, etc, etc. Ken had to work out of town more than seven years while we were recovering. Ten years after bankruptcy, we were able to purchase a home again. So, a few days before Christmas we bought a living tree, put it in a wheelbarrow outside our sliding glass door and opened our gifts, the most important gift was that of a home. Our victory statement was that God would restore to us more than the enemy had taken from us. The little evergreen was a visual aid of our trust in a faithful God.We planted the tree and watched it grow healthy and strong even as our faith in our loving God had grown stronger. A few years later, the city came in and cut down our greenbelt behind our home to widen the street. Our now large healthy faith tree was left laying on it's side -- too big to move and root structure much larger than any hole we could dig to replant. It lay on it side for several months when the idea of just getting help to stand it up and put soil around the root system was born. Neighbors helped and Ken covered the roots with bags of top soil. Our symbol of life became our miracle tree. It has survived root exposure, ice storms, bag worms, drought, disease, and is now a living symbol of faithfulness and strength. The Scrivner family has experienced the same kind of tough challenges, and yet we too stand tall and victorious.
