Building Hope

This past weekend we were given the opportunity to build hope at our church. Habitat for Humanity brought materials to build 3 homes. One to be built and moved to Springfield, another to be built and moved to Lafayette, and the other would stay local, right here in Dayton.

The future owners of the house to stay in Dayton came to the church to help with the build. It was amazing to have the opportunity to meet them. They are a family who moved here from Rwanda in 2006 and they have two twin boys who couldn't be older than 2.




The morning started out with bagel, donuts and coffee followed by an awesome worship time to get our hearts in the right place to start the build.

It was a great day to build.... last year it rained so we were thrilled to see the sun this year. Each group was given a bucket with hammer, nails, tape measure and markers as well as one sheet of paper with the directions to build one wall to a house. We all split up to grab the specific pieces of lumber listed on our paper and met back at our spot to start assembling. Mark was our "nail boy". He would fetch more nails for us as we ran low. :)

It was amazing to look across the parking lot of our church and see all the groups working together and hear all the hammers echoing.

We worked side by side with great friends to build a home for a family who is so grateful for a God who never lets go. He saw this family through rough times beyond anything you or I could imagine. He never let go of them, and He lead them to a group of His children who would lift them up and show them His love through their work. It truly was a blessing to be part of it all.

Here are some pictures of us hard at work.... God is good!

Some father son action with Mark and Jeff Seitter

The Leslie's working together.... our Leslie and Leslie Savage



Nick and Mark Seitter banging it out..... they haven't worked together like this since they built sand castles together in Daytona Beach years ago. I love it!



Our good friends the Wickham's were building right next to us...




Mark texting......


Camera almost caught Les texting but she was too fast.... phone behind her back. :)

I was forced to do math......


Then Les and I were told to work on this piece of the puzzle. All pieces had to be flush...




Is it flush yet???????

NOPE!!!

We finally got it all flush and did it the correct way only to find out we had to make two more for the other two walls we were going to build.. This particular part was our nemesis.

Here we all are with our first wall......two more to go :)


After building the walls we took the black marker in the bucket and wrote scriptures, uplifting quotes and sayings to the families on the walls. Greg came up with the best..... he wrote this on the header of the window frame.... very clever that Gregory.



Once all the walls were built it was time to lift them all onto the trucks....


This was one truck full.... one complete house ready to be delivered to a family.

One house, the one built for the local family, was built on sight (well, kinda built) for everyone to see at church over the weekend. Here is the finished product....

This was again an incredible, humbling experience and we hope to do many more builds with Habitat for Humanity. Next time we hope to build on location.

Thank you Lord for your love, for never letting go and for always being a constant in our lives regardless of the storms that may blow through. We may never face the trials these families have gone through to need these homes, but my prayer is may we always remember, even when we are down... there are always others going through bigger trials, climbing bigger mountains and crawling up out of deeper valleys. Sometimes you get a better view of life from your knees, and this weekend brought us to ours. We felt very blessed to arrive back at our home later that day.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
Your perfect love is casting out fear
And even when I’m caught in the middle of the storms of this life
I won’t turn back
I know You are near

And I will fear no evil
For my God is with me
And if my God is with me
Whom then shall I fear?
Whom then shall I fear?

Chorus:
Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me

And I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on
A glorious light beyond all compare
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
We’ll live to know You here on the earth

Matt Redman