ATLANTA – The rain has come again. Almost ironic, I guess, as our goal this week is to bless some people whose houses had been destroyed by flooding back in September. We weren’t going to let it hinder us. After we divided into our teams, we ran outside in the pouring rain and piled into cars, drove a block down the road, turned into a neighborhood and pulled up to the house that we would restore.

The house itself has character of its own. It was pink house that stuck out in a street of houses colored brown and gray. The owner of the house is Mrs. Fannie, which inspired us to name our team “Fanny Pack.”

We unloaded out of the cars and entered through the garage door of the house. Suddenly, on the inside, the house didn’t have as much character. All that was there were torn down walls and empty space. It was almost shocking seeing what the inside was like. This space, which had been lived in once, was now just a vast, empty space. However, we were about to turn that around.

The transformation by the end of the day was tremendous. The drywall was up, insulation installed, and corner bead put on. What had started off bare this morning now had some life to it.

However, above all else, the thing that struck me the most was the willingness and servant hearts of the team. It was one thing for each of them to have a great work ethic, but on top of that, they were pushing and challenging and encouraging each other to maintain good attitudes. I know that we are here to bless others, but that truly blessed me.

It was a slower start the next morning. The previous 15-hour-plus work day started to catch up to some of us. As the day began though, the excitement was back in the air and the adrenaline was high. It was time to get back to Mrs. Fannie’s house and get some more work done. We even had some more people join in the efforts today as Home Depot staff partnered with Operation Blessing.

Again what a blessing to work alongside such a great team! As the primer was put on the walls and the day drew to a close, I was once again reminded what a blessing it is to bless others.

By: Jordan, 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.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 at 5:01 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.