A little about us:

Well, no one wants to have to bear their guts to the universe, but we are in a situation that calls for some help and our 7 children deserve every bit of humility that we can offer them.

We have always had a mission of helping others. For years I ran a free clothing event that clothes upwards of 100+ families twice a year. We fundraisefor others, and with the help of the community have helped several people replace all the items in their home that they had lost. My husband is known in the community as a father's advocate, and for 4 years has co-facilitated the Nurturing Father's program and as a Combat War Veteran he pioneered the first Nurturing Father's program to be offered at the VA and was publicly recognized for that. We have had 3 families move in with us under the hopes that they would have the "reset" button be started, and with Jason's resume, workplace and life skills, they would be better off once on their own.  We have had an elderly friend live with us for 2 1/2 years in order to help him manage his diabetes and increase the quality of his life. 

We were not prepared for what was going to happen with this most recent family.

Here's a Summary of what Happened: 

Little did we know, we had a professional scam artist move into our home.  We are not ones to publicly put others down, but this person is a financial danger to society and he is a trailblazer wherever he goes, so we will likely go public with his name once we know it's okay to do so.  Until we have the green light, we will reveal only his first name.

My husband worked for 7 years at the VA as a recovery specialist helping homeless veterans get back on their feet. He was a combat veteran and served in Iraq from 2003-2004 and was honorably discharged from the military in 2012. 

The scammer, Josh, knew of Jason and reached out through Facebook to see if they could start up a veteran's recovery group through horse therapy in New York. Through a series of phone calls and a meeting with the property owners, everything seemed legitimate. 

Suddenly, without warning, Josh was in contact with Jason. In a frantic state of emergency, he shared that late at night he was homeless, and that the dream about starting the horse therapy program was not going to work. He confided that he had not been paid for his work, and that he, his baby and his wife were homeless with no where to go. They were going to sleep in their truck that night. 

Of course we took them in. It was going to be temporary.  We were going to help them. 

We were pleased to see that Josh was very resourceful at obtaining gigs on Facebook and Craigslist. He was quickly able to demonstrate that the market was lucrative in the area of general contracting and labor. 

When he bid on a fence job and won, it was no concern of ours to take some time off work and help him build the fences on a high end horse ranch, and earn a little extra side money. It was rewarding to labor over a beautiful fence and see the perfection in the end.

Until, things started to go sour.  

Josh told us that the owners of the ranch agreed that replacing parts of the worn down fence was not the best investment of their money. They had supposedly decided to sign a contract of $148,000. (Later we found out that  this job did not exist, the "evidence" on all sides were forged.) Josh said he couldn't believe it.  He was going to need help, and if Jason would quit his job as he had offered before, they would both profit big time. Josh told us he wanted to see our family do well. He shared how we could make $30,000 profit each with about one month of work and long hours. 

He showed us the contract. He added up the figures. Everything made sense. It was riskier to NOT go into business with him, from the track record that he was producing. After all, $30,000 was about half of a years salary for Jason, and he would be making that in just one month. We thought of the many ways we could provide for our large family. Our family of 7 might be able to go on a vacation this year after all! We might be able to afford to do things for the children that we ordinarily would have to say no to. There were many reasons why going into business made a lot of sense. 

So, after 7 years at the VA, Jason quit his job.  We were happy because we were blind. We did not know we were being scammed.

Immediately after Jason quit his job, and was looking for payment from the first check that was supposed to have cleared, Josh said the money was being held up by the bank. We listened as he fought with the bank, and tried to make arrangements to clear it. Later he claimed he was fed up with the bank and would need more time as he was going to transfer the funds into a completely new bank. 

Then the material was delayed. He claimed the material was getting delivered, but then claimed the truck delivering it couldn't make it up the hill so the job was postponed. 

Jason took out a personal loan of $5,000 to try to pay our bills that were now starting to fall behind. At this time, Josh was able to share "evidence" on how everything was going to work out and it would only be fair that Jason share his loan and put it towards the business because Josh claimed to have created the platform with his own investments and Jason was a shoe in. Jason agreed to keep things from getting complicated on the business end. 

Josh told Jason not to worry about our household bills because he was a 100% service connected veteran and was supposedly  making $3,200/ month. Once his payment "came in" he paid some bills off. We agreed it would all be even in the end. This happened 3 times. 

Until we received an electric shut off notice.  Josh played dumb. He "couldn't believe it" and with all the long hours he was working he must have "forgotten" and there was always an excuse or reason that sounded right but felt wrong. Eventually we established a payment plan with the electric company but if we fall behind it will be shut off.

All the while, as money was short or money was "clearing soon" Josh would make purchases. New clothes. New furniture. Lots of groceries to not be shared. A new truck. Anytime we would question him, he would be outraged. 

Jason's personal vehicle had to be brought to the shop and is still there as we can't afford to remove it from the premise. 

My vehicle needed $770.00 in repairs and we borrowed the money from a friend. 

The lies were not adding up. We had made a very bad decision. It was too late at this point. We would question him, and he would be angry. He would take it out on his dogs, his wife, and was barely available for his child. Thankfully he never took it out on his baby or ours.

We soon discovered that he had scammed some people that he was contracted with.  He would take their down payments, start some of the work and never finish. Or he would order supplies, have the payment bounce and the supplies would never come. He ran up multiple people's credit cards, put several people into debt and never even seemed to feel guilty for turning the lives of the family that took him in upside down. 

This man lived with us. He knew our family, knew our children, and lived in the bed we provided for him. We babysat his daughter. Yet, he manipulated my husband and fraudulently convinced him to go into business with him and made us fall deep into debt with nothing to show for it. 

Not only does my husband now not have his secure government job helping veterans anymore (and the process of getting that job back is very difficult, nor is the position available) but we have not been able to afford Christmas presents for the kids this year (friends and family stepped up), we no longer have much time with each other as my husband works sometimes 90 hours a week doing anything he can to try to make ends meet. 

Meanwhile, Josh is on the loose. 

THIS IS WHAT WE ARE ASKING FOR:

For those of you who pray, we appreciate it. 

We know the power of numbers. If you can help us with a donation, we would appreciate it. Here's what our current debt looks like:

$1,640.00 behind in rent
$1,018.40 behind in my vehicle (danger of repossession. )
$212.23 behind in my husband's vehicle
$448.22 behind in car insurance
$1,375.02 behind in electric
$300.00 due this month. (We have to pay this every 3 weeks)
$300.00 needed in food (we are very low and this is what it costs for a
family of 7 kids)
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5,293.87‬‬ is due to be "current" on our bills as of December 17, 2019

As of January 1, the following will be due in addition to any past due amounts:

$1,200.00 Rent 
$510.00 Vehicle 1 
$212.00 Vehicle 2 
$224.00 Car insurance 
$320.00 Electric 
$300.00 Propane (every 3 weeks) 
$800-1000.00 for the month
------------------
$3,566.00  -- Remember, hubby is in between jobs. Paying this full amount at this time will be difficult at best. 

Other debt that needs to get paid ASAP:
$5,000.00 loan as mentioned above
$1,700.00 money borrowed from friends

We would truly like to pay our friend back and get caught up on our past due bills to avoid car repossession, electric shut off, and more. That is why we are asking for $7,000.00. 

We are selling things in our home, working an online marketing job, trying to gain assistance, willing to labor. Hubby is working part-time at a local diner and is plowing snow. Even the baby is noticing that he is not home as much as he used to be. 

We have always been there for our community and for the first time, I am hoping we can ask you to bear this burden together. This is an evil man who would do this to a fellow veteran, father's advocate and the very family that took him in. He needs to be in jail. But we believe that love overcomes evil and we so appreciate you hearing our story and helping us out. 

As a picture on our wall says, "We rise by lifting others." Thank you for your prayers, your support and your donations. God bless you. 

With care and appreciation,
Jason and Chrissy #TeamWeaver