Fire might have destroyed Maranda Shackelford’s home and possessions on Dec. 1, but it didn’t destroy her faith. Instead, her faith was rewarded by an outpouring of support from the community, beginning while firefighters were still on the scene fighting the fire.

“Immediately I was taken care of,” said Maranda. “I was surrounded by people who loved me.”

Family friends Altha and Morris Thompson, Maranda’s parents, Susan and Steve Stanford, and co-workers from the FasMart at Cobbs Creek all showed up at the fire scene on Cobbs Creek Lane in Mathews, and they were soon followed by church friends from Cornerstone Fellowship, including Wendy Roundy.

It was a situation tailor-made for Roundy, who, along with her husband Doug, is the founder of the nonprofit organization Helping the Homeless. The couple immediately set to work finding a place for Maranda and her seven-year-old daughter Natalya to live.

In short order they had secured a mobile hom...