Touching Lives

I hate to say it, but last time I was in Louisiana, while I had a great time, I didn't feel like we really touched someone's life. I mean, we helped out Miss Mary by buying her a Walmart gift card, but nothing like I experienced today.

We aren't working on a Habitat house. Instead, we're helping out a man who is an employee of the United Way whose house was almost destroyed in the hurricane. He and his wife and 2 daughters are of middle income and probably wouldn't qualify for a Habitat house even if they wanted to. After the storm, only one room in their house was still liveable; their roof was falling apart from mold, their floor was molded... It took a long time for them to fix it back up; meanwhile they are living in a house just next door with a $1000/month rent. They received federal grant money to fix their house, but Nick, the father, is a construction coordinator, so while he was taking care of other people's houses, his own kept falling deeper and deeper into disrepair.

Enter Christ's Church. A lot of the work has been done already: he has a new roof, a new floor; most of the tiles int he kitchen has been laid, most trim and doorframes are up. We arrived this morning and immediately got to work doing electric work, plumbing, painting, caulking,etc. Nick popped in occasionally to chekc on our progress and was amazed each time. Here's what I learned about Nick this evening during devotions:

Nick had spent many many nights tryingto fix the house and fell into a deep time. He was drinking a lot and hadn't been to church in weeks; he had lost hope. How could God still care about him? Then he lucked out and Habitat allowed our group of 15 to work on his house (he has to be out by this Saturday or pay another month's rent). After dropping us offand showing us around, telling us what needs to be done, he left to go back to the office. He didn't return again until lunch, by which time we had put up 3 more door ways, primed most of the surfaces, installed a bathtub and sink, laid the rest of the tile int he kitchen, changed outlets... He said he cried going back to the office. We showed him that God still cared about him, despite his time in the "pit" that he had been feeling.


you never really know if what you're doing makes an impact. Our simple gesture to come down here and devote our time to his house made a monumental impact. I'm thankful that GOd allowed me to be a part of it.