God’s Perfect Timing - LCC, Volunteers, and Donors Help House Displaced Double Lung Transplant Survivor

4/5/2022

"Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible."
St. Francis of Assisi

Watch a moving video of how your donations help families in need.

Seven months ago, Lutheran Church Charities was contacted by St. Peter Lutheran Church in Schaumburg, Illinois, asking for our assistance to find a home for a family of five from Springfield, Missouri. In September, Matthew McMillian received a double lung transplant (that is rarely done) after being transferred to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. To receive an organ transplant, the family must commit to living within 50 miles of the hospital. His wife, Samantha, and daughter, Madison, would be Matthew’s caregivers. His sons, Cole (21) & Simon (17), stayed in Missouri to maintain their home.

Seven months ago, Lutheran Church Charities was contacted by St. Peter Lutheran Church in Schaumburg, Illinois, asking for our assistance to find a home for a family of five from Springfield, Missouri. In September, Matthew McMillian received a double lung transplant (that is rarely done) after being transferred to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. To receive an organ transplant, the family must commit to living within 50 miles of the hospital. His wife, Samantha, and daughter, Madison, would be Matthew’s caregivers. His sons, Cole (21) & Simon (17), stayed in Missouri to maintain their home.

Since September, St. Peter and LCC exhausted every avenue possible to find even a 2-bedroom apartment that was affordable but without much success. On Wednesday, March 16, Matthew was discharged from the rehab center. Since the first of the year, Samantha and Madison have been staying in a hotel paid for until the end of March by a generous donor from their hometown.

But God had a different plan for Matthew and his family. The Friday before Matthew was to be discharged, LCC received a call about a possible house at Trinity Galewood in Chicago. After talking with the Site Leader Eric Hawley, he suggested that we come to look to see if it was inhabitable as no one had lived in the house for over a year; it needed extensive cleaning and repairs. On March 14, Kim Nyquist of St. Peter, two staff members from LCC, and Samantha met Site Leader Eric Hawley to determine if the house could be cleaned and fixed up enough to meet their needs. The work that needed to be done and furnishing was going to take at least a month, but one more month in the hotel would be better than a whole year in one hotel room.

On Saturday, March 19, Kim brought a few of St. Peter’s volunteers and started cleaning. Twelve days later, the house was cleaned, painted, repairs made, and fully furnished with furniture, household items, and supplies a family would need to move into a house. On Thursday, March 31, Site Leader Eric Hawley from Trinity Galewood, Pastor Hays from St. Peter, and a few people who worked on the house gathered to welcome the McMillian family and offer a house blessing on their home for the year.

LCC follows what God had planned out without anyone really knowing

After seven grueling and disappointing months, what we thought was impossible, God stepped in at just the right time and turned things around in twelve days. He brought in ten volunteers from St. Peter, Schaumburg, fourteen volunteers from Trinity, Galewood, and eleven volunteers from LCC who did the physical work on the house. In addition, He brought together donors from the following eleven congregations who provided furniture, household items, food, cleaning, and household supplies for the family:

•   Immanuel, Des Plaines
•   Immanuel, Elmhurst
•   Immanuel Hillside
•   Immanuel, Palatine
•   Salam Christian Fellowship – St. John Schaumburg
•   St. Peter, Arlington Heights
•   St. Peter’s, Schaumburg
•   Trinity Galewood
•   Trinity, Huntly
•   Trinity, Roselle
•   LCC – St. John, Mt Prospect

Trinity Galewood received donations from a non-church organizations like:

•   Allstate Insurance
•   Give N Kind
•   Junkluggers
•   Many donors who purchased online items for the house

Since July 2021, God has been financially providing for the family through numerous donors from the McMillian's hometown to donors who responded to LCC's newsletter appeals with monetary donations that were given to St. Peter to minister to this family.

To God be the glory who was able to accomplish for the McMillians what we, in our human attempts, could not. Praise and Thanksgiving to the Lord for allowing so many of us to be part of what He was doing.