CHANGE OF PACE

Monday, as I metioned in Sunday's posting, we drove about 45 miles to a closed Captain Dan's restaurant in Okeechobee, FL. We took two large box trucks, two pickups and a trailer along with a crew of 8. We spent the morning stripping all the furniture and appliances that we could and hauled it all back to the Sebring Home Store where it filled most of the downstair storage area and most of an upstairs storeroom as well.



The next time you sit in a Red Lobster or similar chain restuarant try to imagine removing all of that "stuff" and hauling it away. That still won't get you the full picture. There was also about 6 huge deep fryers, prep tables, dishes, trays, cleaning items, etc. all packed into those trucks. And I haven't metioned that there was lots and lots of very old grease coating much of the frying and kitchen equipment

The amazing thing about this job was that by Tuesday afternoon, when we stopped in at the Home Store after work, all the booths and two of the large freezers had already been sold. This will be a nice addition to the sales at the store. It's just one of the many ways that Habitat generates income to help with their goal of providing affordable housing.

Tuesday, it was back to our main building site where we completed work on roof rafters and then started laying plywood on them in preparation for roofing.



Today (Wednesday) we were shifted to another build which we had worked on some last week. We were joined by about 20 retired folks from a local Methodist church for a work day of painting a house we had insulated last week. Along with the volunteers, the Habitat construction supervisors, Frannie struck up a conversation with one couple which resulted in an amazing discovery. The couple had not only known both of Fran's parents as well as my dad. They had rented a store front to Fran's mom at one time. As I got into the conversation as well, we discovered an that an old friend of my family who had gone into ministry was also a common acquaintance as well. What a small world it is. Here we are, 1200 miles from our family and we meet people who lived where we grew up and knew both of our parents.

This whole group of volunteers from the Methodist church volunteer regularly as a group for a "work day" where they join the Habitat builders for a day. A smaller group from within this group is made up of retired men who worked as electricians. They come out on additional days whenever another house is ready to be wired and they provide that service to Habitat. It is great to see so many people who don't just "fly south for the winter" to sit around but who also get involved by sharing their time and talents in such a selfless way. Hey, maybe there's something you can do in your own communities where you do the same thing...share your time and talents through some type of volunteer work. God calls us to be servants, following Jesus' example of servanthood.

One of the other people we met was the wife of the couple who will be buying this particular house. She joined us for a day of painting and was picked up by her husband in the afternoon. It's always great to meet and work with some of the people we are actually building for.

Tomorrow we are back on the main build site where we will be joined by a group of High School students who are doing community service work as well. Last Saturday they joined the crew laying down sod around another nearly completed house and tomorrow they will join us to help put on a roof and maybe even some siding. Friday afternoon will complete our commitment here in Sebring. We will then take a break before heading out to Vero Beach to begin yet another build. We'll be seeing you "on the road".