Raise the Roof!

We did it! We raised the roof today. I thought I felt Amish before, today I worked ON the roof. (In case my family and friends are holding their collective breaths, I did not fall or get injured in any way!) In fact I had a great time and felt very accomplished. I will say that the journey, from the ladder, through the struts, and onto the roof was not a pretty one! 

I have lots of pictures tonight and some reflections. The photos are from myself, John, Bill, and Charlotte. Some of us worked on the new house today and others worked on Sarah's house.

More tomorrow...

Casey

From inside this morning

Boards that would soon become the roof.

Bob and Jimmy came out to help us build this house. Bob comes out a couple of times a year to work on houses.

The first boards to go on were the most difficult.

I joined them once more boards were in place.

A view from below...

A view from above...

I took this picture from the top of the roof looking in.

Dino

Mike

Andy

Charlotte

Bernadette

JD our Habitat supervisor extrordinare! 

Getting there...

Almost time to call it a day.

Kristin and Lorenzo

Meanwhile, work continued at Sarah's house.

Jan

John

Natalie, Sarah, and Nicole

Chris, Jan, Marie, our young helper

Sarah laying down seed.

End of the day!

Reflections by Jan

A handful of Sheil people visited the Tutwiler Public Library this evening. It is located just over the tracks in a clean, modern looking brick building across the street from a three story structure with a cornerstone identifying it as a one time Masonic Temple. The library is a very pleasant place with a sizable collection of books, a battery of PC's for patrons, and a brightly carpeted nook with toys and books to capture the interest of the younger kids.  Roshella, the librarian was thrilled to see us and anxiously gave us a update on the library's status and usage. She very graciously received several boxes of books Marie brought from Evanston.

Marie, a former Evanston Library North Branch clerk, made Roshella's acquaintance on her first trip to Tutwiler nearly ten years ago.  Since then, they've maintained regular contact. Marie and Linda Balla, another EPL staffer and HFH veteran, routinely sort through the titles culled from the EPL collection for books and materials that Roshella has indicated would be of interest to her patrons. At least two shipments per year come from Evanston to Tutwiler, librarian to librarian, a practice that will likely continue even when Habitat completes its work here.

It is connection like this which keeps the Sheil Associates coming back to Tutwiler year after year. We've become part of the community here, albeit in a limited way. Our work does not end when we return home.  Tutwiler is always on our minds, and Marie and I routinely track the weather forecast for this part of Mississippi.  Sheil Associates are not the only volunteers who come to Tutwiler but I do know that many of the people in Tutwiler remember who we are and think of us as well.

Reflections by John

I finally found a job down here that I am really good at!  Usually I find myself following the rest of our talented crew around and hope that I can contribute something without making too many mistakes.  Today I spent the day sanding down and refinishing doors in Sarah’s house.  The crew that came before us did a pretty sloppy job with the doors and left them full of drip marks.  I have done enough woodworking lately to know what I am doing, and the defects stood out to me like spotlights. It felt good to be able to smooth out the defects and turn the doors into something to be proud of.

 

Sarah came by to help and I showed her the first door I finished.  I am not sure she noticed the difference, but she was appreciative.  She kept hugging us and saying things like, “I love y’all to death!”  The slab for Sarah’s house was poured in July of 2013 and it was framed in October of that year.  Finally, after almost two years, it is nearing completion.  She is not even trying to hide her excitement at this point.  Late this afternoon, she was scattering grass seed over what will soon be her lawn.

 

Today a little girl named Maya came by to visit.  I taught her how to refinish woodwork, a skill I am pretty sure she was not at all interested in acquiring, but she seemed to enjoy the attention.  Then she ran off with my camera and proceeded to shoot a dozen or so out-of-focus and underexposed pictures.  She brightened the afternoon.  

 

We come down here for a bunch of reasons.  We all love the fellowship, the food is great, and the work rewarding..  But of course there is a spiritual dimension to all of this.  We begin each day with someone leading a morning devotion.  This morning, Charlotte did it and played the song, “God is Love.”  She concluded by having Bill read a prayer.  Here is the second half.

 

Father,

Allow me to serve others with a joyful heart;

Never keeping score;

Always giving;

Never expecting to receive.

Allow me to give of myself,

To give of my talents and of my goods,

To give of my time and of my energy,

To give of my heart and of my soul.

Allow me to serve others as You serve,

With gentleness, compassion, and tenderness,

Never diminishing the worth of another,

Choosing to extend mercy to the brokenhearted,

Like You have repeatedly shown it to me.

 

Oops!  I fall well short of that standard, but I’m working on improving!

 

I have also been thinking today of the story of the last judgement of Matthew.

“In truth I tell you, in so far as you did this to one of the least  these, you did it for me.”  Matt. 25:40.

 

It is not hard to of grasp the concept that what we are doing for others we are doing for Jesus.  It is especially easy when Jesus is coming up to us and giving us hugs and telling us how she loves us all to death, or when Jesus is a cute and  precocious little girl.  But Jesus is not always so easy to find, or so attractive in appearance.  Jesus referred to the least of these, not the greatest of these.  What if Jesus is the really dumb store clerk? What if Jesus is that annoying person on the other side of a customer service call?  Or most challenging of all, what if Jesus is somebody I just do not like?  That is when Jesus is harder for me to find.  That is something I still need to work on.  Perhaps this trip will encourage me to look a little harder.