Day 8

It's hard to believe that we have reached Day 8 already! It was a tiring but rewarding experience. The Cedar Rapids Gazette did an article on the conclusion of Eight Days of Hope. You can read it here.

Here are some of my personal thoughts and reflections (in no particular order):

• This group loves Jesus and loves serving him as a way of life. How else can you possibly explain why people from 44 states and 5 Canadian provinces would come to Cedar Rapids, sleep on a church floor and work for free!
• There is no way to adequately prepare a person and/or host church for one of these events. Last Sunday our parking lot was already full at 6:15 AM!
• Steve Tybor is incredible! He's too humble to take any credit, but others feed off of his energy and passion. His love for Christ is contageous! Being around Steve makes me want to be more like Jesus and to serve Him more faithfully.
• This group is well organized. How do you manage 1400 volunteers and do projects in 140 homes? 25 people from their advance team came to Cedar Rapids the week before the event to do assessments and begin work.
• Their leadership team is incredibly committed to their mission and to one another. Several on the leadership team are presently unemployed, yet they came anyway!
• I met some really talented people - electricians, plumbers, home builders, general contractors, carpenters, and a woman that does spray texture!
• God can do extraordinary things through ordinary people who make themselves available. The simple act of hanging sheetrock brought tears to the eyes of more than one home owner.
• Our church rocks! Everywhere I went I saw New Covenant folks. Thank you for linking arms with Eight Days of Hope to serve our community.
• Our students know how to work. I didn't see one of our students sitting around. They hung drywall, taped, repaired homes, painted, cleaned work sites and the church, and loved on home owners!
• My favorite part of the day was announcement time and home owner testimonies during dinner. I estimate that almost half of the home owners joined us for dinner. Hearing the home owners share from their hearts inspired all us to keep going.
• One of my personal hi-lights was seeing a home owner get a furnace purchased and installed. They were heating their home with a gas stove. The home owners joined us for dinner and worship on Saturday night.
• I can't believe that Eight Days of Hope does two of these a year. Where do they get the energy! OK, so I know where they get the energy, it's God inspired. I still can't believe that they do two a year!
• I really admire people who have learned or mastered their craft. It makes me wish I was more skilled in one of the construction trades.
• This group is characterized by humility and servanthood. That's a pretty powerful one-two punch. Maybe that's why God is so powerfully blessing this ministry.
• Steve Tybor made it clear that they would honor local building codes and ordinances. We worked closely with Code Enforcement and had a very positive working relationship with the City of Cedar Rapids. A special thank you to Jim Thatcher!
• Nine churches opened their doors to house over 800 volunteers from out of state. Thank you to New Life Community, St. Marks Lutheran, Faith Bible, Oakland Nazerene, River of Life, Bethany Lutheran, Trinity Lutheran, Concordia Lutheran, and Huss Presbyterian churches!
• New Covenant will continue to resource several of the home owners we have built a relationship with, to help them finish their home.
• Even though we worked on 140 homes, there are hundreds and even thousands left to be worked on. There is still a lot of work left to do. New Covenant must continue to be involved in some way.
• The lunch and sharing time at Palo on Saturday was one of the most incredible things I have ever witnessed or been part of. An entire community has been impacted.
• Vernon and his cooking team did a great job. They got up every morning at 3:30 so we could have a hot breakfast at 6:00 AM.
• I think I personally met people from over 30 different states!
• Dan Garrick is applying for the Construction Manager position with the Linn Area Long Term Recovery Coalition. I can't imagine a more qualified candidate. It would be totally awesome if Dan got the job! What a blessing he would be to our community.
• Butch and Juliene are awesome. They retired so that can volunteer/work with Eight Days of Hope. And they put in long days.
• Charlie and Greg served Palo like it was their own town. Tom Watson gave them a huge compliment when he said that all the work was done with professionalism. The Palo teams were turning out so much work that Tom had to call in two Cedar Rapids inspectors in order to keep up!
• Although there are a number of teens and young families who serve with Eight Days of Hope, it is primarily a "grey-haired" group. One man told me he is changing his retirement plans after serving here this past week.
• I'm thankful for daylight savings time!
• Charles is amazing. He needs to take a two week vacation!

I could keep on going, but I need to wrap this post up while it's still Day 8. To God be the glory, great things He has done! Thank you to all who had a part in this great adventure called Eight Days of Hope.