After serving three years of military duty at Alconbury, England, Floyd received orders to Valdosta, Georgia. Our official PSC (permanent change of station) date was around January 7, 1982, approximately two weeks after Christmas. That’s when we were actually getting on the airplane to go home.
The military allowed us one week in billeting (the base motel), which meant that December 31st was the soonest we could check in. During the week we were in billeting, Floyd completed all his out-processing from base. But there was a lot to do before we could check into billeting. The problem was, we were in England! The British locals were contracted to take care of military moves – not the base. So the British boxed up and shipped our household goods and hold baggage, in addition to performing the house inspection, which cleared us from base housing.
The British were on holiday between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. That meant, we either had to try to cram it all in after the first of the year, or else we had to clear base housing before Christmas. That cramming thing didn’t appeal to us, especially when we had no control over scheduling the British contractors when we needed them. Our only option was to clear base housing before Christmas. But that presented another problem. We couldn’t check into billeting until December 31st.
Floyd went to billeting and explained our dilemma. We felt certain they would make an allowance for us under the circumstances, so we were surprised to hear them say, “Those are the rules. No exceptions. It’s your responsibility to find lodging between Christmas and New Year’s.” Oo – that was cold-hearted; to require a military family to move right after the holidays without providing them the necessary support during the holidays, and then to put them out on the street because the dilemma that the military puts them into inconveniences billeting.
Because we were forced to ship everything before Christmas, we didn’t celebrate Christmas that year. No tree. No decorations. No presents. We were living out of a suitcase. We didn’t buy anything that we couldn’t pack in a suitcase or take with us on the airplane. But our son was only twenty months old, so he was too young to notice.
Now our friend, Brandy Gibson, had just gotten married a month earlier to a sweet, young British gal named Dawn. They were still newlyweds. Yet, Brandy and Dawn opened their home to us for the week between Christmas and New Year’s.
Galatians 6:7 & 9 says, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap…And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”
We’ve always had an open door policy, so Brandy knew that he was always welcome at our house, and as a single GI, he’d spent weekends and holidays with us while we were still newlyweds. Now, when we needed it most, he returned the favor, despite opposition from the church. And the Lord allowed us to reap benefits from the kindness we’d shown Brandy. But some of the people from our church were not happy that he opened his door to us.
“You’re making a big mistake by letting them stay with you. They’re troublemakers, and you’ll regret it,” said one of our deacons.
Romans 8:31 says, “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” God has always taken care of our family. And He always will.