Day 7

Just when you don't think it can get any better, God pulls out all the stops and multiplies His blessings. This describes Day 7! You can click on the photo above to see a slide show of the day

Wow, where do I start. We had a hand-off meeting with the Leslie from the Long Term Recovery Coalition and others who are interested in seeing that the 105 homes we have worked on are not dropped. We left with an initial plan that will get us through the next several weeks.

I stopped by Palo to see the progress on some of the houses I visited earlier in the week. It so encouraging to see all that has been done. Greg was planning to leave today to return to Michigan but he decided to do additional electrical work for a home owner so he will leave on Sunday instead.

The city of Palo hosted a "Thank You" Pizza Lunch at the garden center. They planned for 450 and there may have been that many in attendance. Penny MC'd and introduced various home owners who shared what this experience has meant for them. I have never been part of a meeting like this in my entire life! Words can't describe what took place in that room over a pizza lunch! And of course Charlie was introduced and received a well deserved round of applause. Hope has been restored to an entire community!

I stopped on the NW side to visit some homes that are in process. It was so awesome to see someone from New Covenant in every home I visited today! Then I stopped in on Mark Forstrom and the house he and our youth group has been working on all week. What a transformation! This is the house that had terrible termite damage. Herman, the home owner, and his family came to dinner tonight and expressed his gratitude to our entire group!

From there it was down to Czech Village and to catch up with the progress on Nikki's house. This is the home Charlie Snodgrass, John Herder and our youth group has been working on. All the sheetrock got hung today and they made great progress taping. I called for a new water heater for her and that was delivered later in the day.

Over ten home owners were introduced at dinner. It is so encouraging after a long day to hear their heart-felt gratitude for what has been done for them. Mark, a volunteer from Pennsylvania, had the opportunity to pray with a 15 year old boy on the work site this week. Today the family came and joined him for dinner. Mark taught the 15 year old how to use the compound miter saw this week. He enjoyed it so much, he wanted to keep Marks saw. Mark did him one better. He invited the family onto the stage this evening and presented the young man with his own saw! This is good stuff! Mark is one of my new heros!

Steve reported that approximately $2 million of construction has been accomplished this past week, and 270 jobs have been finished! Wow! What a week. No wonder we are all a little tired!

But our sore backs and aching bones are a small price to pay for the many blessings we have all received. We have been blessed with food to eat, homes to live in, work to do, and new friends to enjoy. We have been blessed to be part of something God is doing in our community. We have been blessed to hear testimonies of changed lives. We have all received multiplied blessing this past week!