·
The organization I volunteered with is Habitat
for Humanity. Habitats mission statement is to work to put God’s love
in action, by bringing people together building homes, community and hope. They fulfill their mission by working with
volunteers and making houses for families that would not be able to afford one
without the help of Habitat. Habitat considers themselves to be a hand up not a
hand out, they do not just give the houses away, the families need to put money
towards it and many hours of work as well. Habitat for Humanity was founded in 1976 and has built more than 225,000
houses worldwide, changing more than one million lives.
·
This experience took place during spring break, we
left Sunday morning March 1st and came back Saturday March 7th. The experience took place in Cookeville Tennessee.
·
Along with myself eleven other college students
attended this trip with me. We went
through the ministry program LUMINATE here on campus, there were five total
trips that were held during this time.
They wanted to split friends up so we could build community with the
others on our trip, so going into this trip I did not know the other eleven participants;
however, as the week went on we became very close and shared many memories together. My friends and those who I was really
comfortable with were not there.
·
While there we did many different projects. We put insolation in the basement, we then
put the floor beams up, and then the floor boards. We also worked in the warehouse making shelves
and painting trim. Spring break is a
time when many go on vacation and use the week to relax and catch up on sleep.
By spending our spring break serving, we communicated that we put others needs
before ourselves.
·
We spent most of the week working outside and it
was very cold during the week, not to mention all of the mud. One would assume that there would be a lot of
complaining by the college kids; however, everyone knew this situation was not
ideal but we all sucked it up and worked to get the tasks done. By all working
together we ended up having a lot of fun and some even used the mud as war paint.
·
One positive interaction I had during this
experience was when I met the mom and son who would be receiving the house we
were working on. This was an awesome
experience because after talking with the mom I realized just how much she
deserved this house, and the next day when I was working on the house it made
me want to work even harder because I wanted it all to be perfect for
them.
·
From volunteering with Habitat I learned how to
use a lot of new tools like the nail gun, but I also learned the reality of
homelessness. After talking with different families that have or soon would be receiving
their house I saw how it can happen to anyone.
One woman we met had her own house and a nice job, but then she had a
stroke and lost her job which led to losing her house. Another woman we met was a stay at home mom
with two kids and her husband had a nice job providing for the family; unfortunately,
the husband died in a car accident and they lost their house. Those are just two examples of how unexpected
and unfortunate occurrences led to homelessness. I would definitely participate in Habitat
again, it was a very fun week were I learned a lot of new skills as well as building
great community.
No comments:
Post a Comment