Extreme Build Reflections
August 28, 2008
This was the third year for Kentucky Baptist Fellowship to be involved in Extreme Build. This year’s experience was filled with moments of frustration, excitement, success, and deep emotion.
Here are some images that linger in my mind, long after the week.
• From the first day to the last, Bessie kept interacting with people, thanking them. Each time she was flooded with tears of joy.
• Bessie’s sisters, one who came from Ohio, working daily on the job site.
• Steve Holm, our house leader, arriving at the job site early and staying late.
• Volunteers, some skilled and some not so skilled, sweating together for the common goal of building a house. One-hundred fifty volunteers from Kentucky, Indiana, Texas, Illinois, most giving up a week’s vacation in order to be involved.
Bessie’s tears reflected her deep emotion regarding the house. All week, she tried to convey in her words her deep gratitude. The first day of the build, I was involved in hanging the banner that listed various partners. Bessie approached me and said, “I’d like to get the name of every person and every organization involved in this because I want to send them a thank you note.”
One image that lingers in my mind happened at the dedication. Bessie was given the key to her house. With tears streaming down, she held the key high into the air. A few minutes later, after speeches and the dedication prayer, there was a gap of silence (the kind of brief silence that occurs at the end of a worship service and just before people begin greeting one another). Bessie yelled, “Hey everybody! I’m a homeowner!”
Discarding her written words prepared for the dedication, Bessie spoke from her heart when she said, “I thought I was getting a house this week but I didn’t know I was getting 150 new friends.” Indeed all who were involved in Extreme Build have made new friends. The lives of volunteers intersected with each other and with the lives of Bessie and her family. And while we rejoice that a house was built, perhaps the more long-lasting effect of Extreme Build is the relationships it engenders.