Imagine feeling like you are trapped in a deteriorating house with no money to fix the dangerous conditions.

One Smithville woman did not have to imagine this – she was living it on a daily basis. Many dead trees had lingered over Cindy Shirley’s home for a long time, including one behind her home that caused extensive damage to her roof when limbs fell and pierced the structure.

“I feared for my life every day,” Shirley said. “It felt like I was in a box, almost like I was being caged in.”

Shirley, a devout member of First Baptist Church of Smithville, said that even though the trees worried her, she always looked on the positive side and appreciated the things she had in life – one of them being her brother-in-law Marcus Chambers who, along with her sister Cathy, lives next door.

“Due to health issues I have, Marcus has been keeping my grass mowed around my house, but the rest of the property has been unattended for many years,” she said. “Recently, he’s had so much going on, he’s not been able to keep up the yard work around my house. He also tries to take care of emergencies around my home as well – the man deserves a medal.”

As if there was not enough for her to deal with, Shirley’s older brother passed away in June, leaving his siblings to make the arrangements that come along with losing a loved one.

About a month ago, however, Shirley’s prayers were answered.

“I had given a testimony about my brother and sang during a Sunday church service,” Shirley said. “After church, I had lunch with one of our church deacons, Bill Hector, and his wife Diana, where I asked if they knew anyone who could do yard work on my house.”

That night, Shirley said she received an email from Diana saying that all of the deacons had a meeting and wanted to make her house a project of theirs.

“I brought it (her house) up in our meeting and Bob Rogers, one of the deacons, thought it would be a great idea to make it a deacon project,” Bill said. “The ones that could showed up.”

Shirley said she felt like a huge amount of weight had been lifted when she found out.

“All I could think was oh my gosh, what an answer to a prayer,” she said.

That following Wednesday, Shirley said deacon Matt Swartz and his wife Jennifer came out to assess the house and see what needed to be done.

Shirley left town the next day to take care of some of her deceased brother’s affairs and that’s when the big task got started. Matt came out with his sons Jamie and Morgan, along with youth director and coach Wayne Childs and Shirley’s brother-in-law.

When Shirley arrived home that night, she said she was shocked to see what had been done.

“They accomplished a great deal that day,” Shirley said. “They cut down the monstrous tree behind the house and at least four other trees. These men are a force to be reckoned with.”

According to Shirley, they all came back that Friday to remove all of the tree logs from her yard, using her neighbor Gary Baxter’s Bobcat to help transfer the logs onto a trailer.

“They worked ‘til late in the evening cutting up trees and hauling off logs,” she said.

That Saturday, which was the last day of the project, Shirley said deacons Bill Hector, Bob Rogers and Richard Brown all came out to burn brush, clean up and mow.

“It was hard work, but luckily it was overcast,” Hector said.

They were followed by deacons Scott Miller, Glen Ray, Brad Williams, Pastor Michael Murphy and Shirley’s son David, who all brought a tractor, along with trailers, a riding lawn mower, weed eaters and chainsaws.

“These men together were able to accomplish more than I could have dreamed,” Shirley said. “They had five fires going at one time, cautiously watching to make sure they didn’t get out of control.”

Shirley said words cannot express how grateful she is to all of the men who put their hearts and souls into the project.

“I also want to thank the wives of these men for supporting them,” she said. “Please continue encouraging and supporting your husbands. Look at the amazing things that can be accomplished.”