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Shelter Mission Team

A labor day, resurrection day, bonding day, awesome day! (May 7, 2011)

Shelter Mission Team house rehab project

Nearly all of us were cooped up this winter and were ready to get outside, roll up our sleeves and use our arms and legs! On Saturday May 7 that’s what we, The Shelter Mission Team, did: a very satisfying day of physical labor! Before we got there, we knew it would be fun and we knew it would be worthwhile. But there was much we didn’t anticipate – that our day’s offering would lead to such resurrection for a neighbor in need, that this small field mission would connect our team as new friends in Christ, or that the weather would, for once, cooperate.

It started in February when I learned of an organization called HomeFront that receives applications from people in need in our area – people for whom personal, medical and/or financial setbacks rendered them unable to maintain their home. HomeFront then seeks to match qualifying homeowners with churches and other service organizations who will contribute with dollars and with labor to rehab the homes. FCCOG Shelter Mission Team chose a project in Cos Cob. The man of the house has been in a nursing home for eleven years and the woman of the house has suffered a series of serious medical setbacks. Their home needed a lot of work. Mark Mohn, our foreman par excellence, took the lead, scoped out the work, ordered the materials, and did many other preparatory tasks. I rallied our troops, money and prayers.

Shelter Mission Team

Our team contributed $2,500 to the mission and our work crew was nearly 30 people. Trust me, there was plenty of work for all of us, whether skilled or unskilled laborers! It’s amazing what a FCCOG crew can do with rakes, paintbrushes, power tools and yes, an enormous dumpster!! We …. power-washed 2,000 sq ft of siding removed moss and added some new planks of siding, applied stain to 1,000 sq ft of siding, replaced 10 cellar steps and added a brace to the stair corner, cleared out the basement and garage, including 3 frig-freezers, filling a 20-yd dumpster as well as Peter Grunow’s pick-up truck, swept out the basement and garage, sanded and painted the garage door, removed and replaced a toilet and two bathroom sinks, removed and re-installed a bathroom floor, installed three lighting fixtures, installed a new screen door and a kitchen window screen, sawed down a tree trunk and hauled away the huge pieces, trimmed many bushes and shrubs and cleared away mounds of vines, raked all the leaves, worked in all the garden beds – cleaning, weeding, and replanting and a few other things such as sweeping all the paths, fixing an outside light, repairing a door lock ….

Shelter Mission Team house rehab project

By the end, we could see a home and a human life resurrected. More simply, for all of us, there were the blessings of a good day’s work, the satisfaction of so much accomplished, and the deep gratitude of the homeowner. Perhaps the unexpected and most delightful blessing was working side-by-side with church friends and getting to know each other in ways that can only happen when we spend real time and share together in Christ’s mission field. If you aren’t serving on a Mission Team and would like to, do consider ours – we’ve got a great thing going and hope to keep it going!

Resurrection blessings, Susan

Special thanks to our four super heroes, Mark Mohn, Peter Griffin, Peter Grunow and Chuck Wheelock who went the extra miles, putting in extra days and efforts!