Sinking

The plight of a family who is struggling to pay their bills is deceiving.

They will look as though everything is okay.

The most significant concern is being judged by family members, co-workers, church family and friends. It becomes a big problem until they can no longer maintain the facade of calm.

Financial struggle is a very personal private struggle. Many times economic challenges eat at the fabric of a marriage and a person’s self-image. For the Louzon family, they felt the pinch and the frustration. “We were behind on a lot of our bills, had asked family for money already, and were tired of being stuck in the cycle of the have and have not.”

Tiffany Louzon knew that something had to give. With over 11,000 dollars in debt dragging them down financially, emotionally and spiritually the family knew they needed to find help.

The looming question was where to turn for help? Their church recommended Love INC.

So often people shop at Love’s Treasure and The Outback Resale Shoppes because it’s all they can afford for clothing and household items.

The Louzons had been regular customers but had not connected the Life Skills program to the resale shoppes.

Sometimes you cannot see the forest through the trees.

“The Love INC staff were all very supportive and caring as well as all of the volunteers that we came in contact with. What seemed at first to be such an intimidating place became like a second home to us. We had many interactions with the staff at Love INC. Mary was our main contact, our lifeline at times, and the one who helped us the most. If we needed something, we had no fear or shame in asking for help. Our mentor was awesome in supporting us, cheering us on, making us feel like we were amazing and inspiring us to keep going. It was easy to share with him our struggles and he helped us foster our ideas into plans that worked,” explained Tiffany Louzon.

It’s interesting to learn how a person’s viewpoint is changed after attending the Life Skills Program! The Louzons explained their transformation, “We learned first that there is no shame in needing help. Finances are hard, life is hard, “adulting” is hard, parenting is hard…I could go on! The program brought us together each week with people who were in similar situations, so it was very freeing not to have to wear masks. This truly is the picture of what the church is.

The program itself helped us see that we could overcome some of the hard things in our life, with help. God’s help, Love’s help, our own help, and the help of others who care.

Our mentor brainstormed with us and allowed us to come up with most of the solutions to our problems on our own. That meant so much as they were our ideas instead of things coming from someone else. It gave us confidence in ourselves.”

To those who financially support the ministry, the Louzon family wants you to know the following:

“We were incredibly blessed in the year and a half that we were members of the program. Our kids were blessed with Christmases of presents, and even more important to them, ones where they were able to pick out things to give us. We were blessed with two beds for our boys when they grew out of their current beds. We were comforted with warm, clean blankets and sheets! We were fed each week by the food pantry-what a blessing not to have to focus on that and be able to focus on reducing our debt. We fully took advantage of the gas vouchers and oil change vouchers. We have grown to love both companies that we have worked with for those vouchers and they will continue to get our business because of the grace they showed us. The kids went back to school with full new backpacks and amazing clothing! Such a blessing again for such a small thing that is often overlooked. We used the clothing pantry a few times when sizes were changing and were amazed that they always had what we needed. Appliances were fixed at a lower cost, car repairs done at a reduced price-all to help us get back on top. In the end, we were able to pay off over $11,000 in debt due to the generosity of all of the donations and support we were given. Truly a life changing year and a half.”

A lot can happen in a year and a half. A family can find financial security; faith can grow to new heights and hope can be restored. More importantly, another family will receive a mentor and a new journey will begin! Tiffany Louzon has decided to give back to Love INC by becoming a mentor to another family. As is often the case, those who receive want to give back. We are excited to see how God will continue to direct Tiffany and her entire family!

Thank you for being a part of this one family’s story. We praise God for the hard work, course redirection and restoration in their lives.