A Local Church Helps A Family Poisoned From Carbon Monoxide

Augusta, GA—We’re told during the holiday’s it’s better to give than to receive. Sunday, there was no better example of that than what some members of Steven’s Creek Community Church did for the Joseph family.

Nearly 2 weeks ago, Nickson Joseph and his family of 7 barely survived carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning after their furnace malfunctioned.

Nickson Joseph, family poisoned by CO: “We learned that it’s better to be safe than sorry. You know it’s best to have some humidifier or smoke detector in there to indicate what’s going on because if you don’t then you will pay the price later. We could have went to sleep and never woke back up. Fortunately for us, God spared our lives and we want to thank him for that.”

Their lives were spared, but nearly everything they owned needed to be thrown out, including their clothes, bedding and furniture.

Dave Willis, Pastor, Steven’s Creek Community Church:  “You know I’ve received a lot of emails, a lot of phone calls, even today at church people are handing me gift cards and handing me gift wrapped boxes and saying ‘hey, if this can help for that family then please send it to them with our love.”

Since hearing the Joseph’s story, Steven’s Creek pastors, Marty Baker and Dave Willis looked to their church for ways to help the family during this Christmas season.

Pastor Willis: “What I love is that the people who we are helping are folks that we don’t even know. And so the church, the small groups in the church, individuals in the church are saying you know we don’t have a lot but if we can pull what we have, with what other people have, then together we can make a big influence.”

And they did. Sunday, we took the donated clothes and goodies over to the Joseph’s home for an early Christmas surprise.

Joseph: “We still want to tell you people out there, we really appreciate you for giving the gifts that care. You know, and there are a lot of people out there who care and we want to really thank you.”

Pastor Willis: “When you give you know you get to see someone’s face light up and see that you helped to meet a need and that’s really the greatest gift of all. And it sounds cliché and it’s so true, and we’ve gotten to see that first hand.”

Besides clothing, people were generous enough to give furniture as well. But, they tell us the most important gift they received was a carbon monoxide detector. Something they did not have prior to being poisoned.

For more information on how to protect yourself from carbon monoxide poisoning, log on to: http://www.carbon-monoxide-poisoning.com/symptoms.html