Hi all! We arrived at our host site on Sunday afternoon after joining brothers and sisters in a morning worship at a Black Baptist Church in Chapel Hill. What an enthusiastic, energetic, musical worship experience! It was great to be able to walk into that church as total strangers and have almost everyone in the congregation make a point of walking over to us to introduce themselves, give us a handshake or hug, and tell us how glad they were that we joined them. It’s great as Christians to know that you have “family” all over the place. All you need do is walk in the door of a Bible believing church and know that you’re with family. By the way, to any Fowler Baptist folks reading this, the service lasted 2 hours! And to think that some of you thought an hour and a half was too long. We were so into worship and the word that it didn’t feel much more than an hour. I guess time really can seem to stand still when you’re having a great time “in the Lord”.
We set up our rig, along with two other rigs, in a corral at a horse farm owned by two wonderful folks by the name of Richard and Nancy. They open their farm to RV Care-A-Vanners when they come to town for a build. They said that they used to see the Care-A-Vanners campers parked in a parking lot behind a church in town and they felt that volunteers should have a more homey and private place to set up and relax during their down times while serving here so they made the decision to open their farm to folks like us. What a blessing and what a selfless ministry this couple provides. God bless them in their service to him and to the people of this community.
Sunday night we attended a welcome dinner and orientation at a local church where we met other members of our building team including young adults who work full-time for the Chatham Habitat for Humanity under a program called Americorps. It is like the Peace Corps but more nationally organized. We also met local construction supervisors and members of the Habitat Board of Directors but the greatest opportunity tonight was when we met two of the families whose homes we will be working on the next two weeks. There are actually three homes currently being built for three Hispanic families who will be working with us on the weekends. Their English is limited so one of the Americorps men acted as interpreter. What a unique opportunity. I continue to hope that by sharing our experiences that some of you who read this blog may find inspiration to participate in some way in the future yourselves.
This build is unusual in that we will be working Tuesday through Saturday instead of the usual Monday through Friday schedule. That is the way this local Habitat organization schedules their builds so volunteers can have the opportunity to work with the families who will be buying these homes. Guess I’d better start learning some Spanish, huh? We have been very impressed by the friendliness of the organizers and the detailed way they are keeping us informed. They treat the visiting volunteers very special and repeatedly thanked us for coming to help. They said that they depend on such folks from outside the area as they are limited in how many volunteers they can draw from their local areas.
Finally, our fellow RV Care-A-Vanner builders include Tom and Mary Jane from Pittsburgh, PA and Hank and his dog, Roger, from Boston, MA. All three are retired. Tom and Mary Jane are on their way to Florida and, like us, this is their first Habitat build with the Care-A-Vanners. This is Hank’s 2nd Habitat build. They, along with everyone else we met tonight are very nice. There is the possibility of a couple more RV Care-A-Vanners joining us today or tomorrow. We look forward to beginning our two week’s work with them all.
Oh yes. I may have the opportunity to lead brief devotions at the worksite as we begin our daily work. Pray about that please. God bless. We’ll see you “on the road”.
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