ATLANTA— Today we arrived at the little Baptist church that has generously opened its doors to around 120 Master’s Commission students, both from Atlanta and Rockford, Illinois. Having worked with Operation Blessing before, I thought I knew what to expect. However, something was different. Instead of the solemn atmosphere we experienced while gutting houses, there was expectation in the air. We were going to help people by completely rebuilding their homes, and ultimately, a part of their lives.

We finally made it to the right Home Depot on our second try. Home Depot has blessed us by not only giving us gift cards for the materials, but by giving 120 students tutorials on how to build a house. We learned how to put up drywall, paint, install toilets, spackle, hang doors, and everything else we needed to know. Once we had been trained to be construction masters, we headed back to the church.

There are 4 different locations that Operation Blessing is working on. My team, team “Fanny Pack,” is working on Mrs. Fannie’s house. We worked for a “quick” 15 hours. It has been exciting to see the progress as we installed insulation, put up drywall and filled in the cracks with plaster. As I watched and worked alongside my classmates, I was amazed at the great attitudes and willingness I saw in all of them. The time flew by because of the positive encouragements of our leaders. I’m looking forward to what we accomplish.

By: Hosanna, Master’s Commission volunteer

*About the project: In just 5 days, a team of more than 160 volunteers renovated four flood-damaged homes in Atlanta as part of an Extreme Blessing home makeover project, giving families the surprise of a lifetime. For more on the dramatic reveals, click here.

Tags: Atlanta, Disaster Relief, Extreme Blessing, Flood Relief, Georgia, Home Depot, Illinois, Master's Commission, North America, OBI, Operation Blessing, Rockford, Volunteers

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 at 5:00 pm and is filed under Disaster, North America, OBI Volunteer Blogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.