A few weeks ago I was blessed to be able to go out on a Homes of Hope house build with Cedar Mill Bible Church in Portland, OR. They were here for Mission Adventures and as I will be visitng them soon, I will post more about the team later. While we were building this house for a family I was able to build many relationships. One of those relationships was with one of the children for which the team was building a house.
On the second day of the build as I was cleaning up from lunch, I looked over and noticed that the middle son, Erik, was stacking wood pieces up against the a-frame ladder in front of the house. When I asked him what he was doing he replied, "building a house". I asked him who the house was for and he just grinned. A few moments later one of the ladies from the team came to get the ladder as they needed to use it to finish up some detail work on the "big" house. When she pulled the ladder away, all the wood that Erik had stacked toppled to the ground in one large pile. He looked devestated. His house that he had worked so hard on had been destroyed.
I walked over and surveyed the mess looking for a way to salvage this wreck. I put my thinking cap on and realized that I know how to actually build a house. Looking around I found all the tools necessary (since we were building a house and all they were readily available) and told little Erik not to fret, we can do it.
Erik and I found several matching pieces of plywood and started constructing a small box-like shape. Soon the structure was taking shape and beginning to look like a house. We found extra roofing paper and shingles and added them to our masterpiece. We even got one of the guys to cut out a door for our house. Not to waste a single thing, we used a left over duct tape nametag to secure the cut-out door back to the house creating a hinge. Now that is inventive!!
I found through my talking and building with Erik that this 10 year old liked to build, use the hammer stapler more than the regular hammer and was thrilled to be moving into his house (the big one, not the one we built together, it was too small).
We had to clean up before Erik and I could finish building our house but I promised before I left that we would complete it the next day. Well, the next morning I was a little late getting to the job site as I had to turn in paperwork for my Mexican Visa. When I finally arrived at Erik's house I found that he had already completed our house and had been very sad that I had not been there to help. I explained my morning activities and reassured him that he had done an excellent job without me. A few minutes later he asked how to spell my name and I looked to see that he had added a small piece of metal that we use to cap off the edges of the roof. On this metal he had painted his name and with a pencil was adding my name. This was truly our house!!
I must admit I have never had so much fun building a house and I will remember this experience for the rest of my life. So see, I can build a house too!
Enjoy this story? Make sure you check out other stories of the transforming power of God through the Youth With a Mission (YWAM) ministry, Homes of Hope by clicking here.
I walked over and surveyed the mess looking for a way to salvage this wreck. I put my thinking cap on and realized that I know how to actually build a house. Looking around I found all the tools necessary (since we were building a house and all they were readily available) and told little Erik not to fret, we can do it.
Erik and I found several matching pieces of plywood and started constructing a small box-like shape. Soon the structure was taking shape and beginning to look like a house. We found extra roofing paper and shingles and added them to our masterpiece. We even got one of the guys to cut out a door for our house. Not to waste a single thing, we used a left over duct tape nametag to secure the cut-out door back to the house creating a hinge. Now that is inventive!!
I found through my talking and building with Erik that this 10 year old liked to build, use the hammer stapler more than the regular hammer and was thrilled to be moving into his house (the big one, not the one we built together, it was too small).
We had to clean up before Erik and I could finish building our house but I promised before I left that we would complete it the next day. Well, the next morning I was a little late getting to the job site as I had to turn in paperwork for my Mexican Visa. When I finally arrived at Erik's house I found that he had already completed our house and had been very sad that I had not been there to help. I explained my morning activities and reassured him that he had done an excellent job without me. A few minutes later he asked how to spell my name and I looked to see that he had added a small piece of metal that we use to cap off the edges of the roof. On this metal he had painted his name and with a pencil was adding my name. This was truly our house!!
I must admit I have never had so much fun building a house and I will remember this experience for the rest of my life. So see, I can build a house too!
Enjoy this story? Make sure you check out other stories of the transforming power of God through the Youth With a Mission (YWAM) ministry, Homes of Hope by clicking here.
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