Building Houses

This week I had the priviledge of working with a construction team from Pennsylvania. Pastor Carlos and his church call them "the crazy ones" because they work so hard while they are here. They've set the record, building a house in a day.

While they were here this year, they built five homes in five days.

They ARE crazy! They are crazy about doing absolutely everything they can to help people who need it and about sharing the love of the Lord with their words AND their actions.

They got up early and worked late, and had very short lunch breaks. They lived Colossians 3:23 this week - "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as if serving the Lord, not men."

It was an honor to get to know them and to be a part of their team for a few days.

This is a before picture. The woman who lives in this house has diabetes and had to have both of her legs amputated.

There are three generations represented in the picture below: Grandpa Richard Knox, his two sons, daughter in law and three grandchildren.

Grandpa Richard will be 80 years old in April. He has been coming to the DR for 5 years. He's had a few health problems, but he doesn't let that slow him down one bit! He's determined to give it everything he's got, and he's not going to let anybody tell him he can't. It's also very special to be able to build houses with your kids and grandkids.

This is the woman who received the new house. Her name is Angelina. She has four grown children. There are several people from the neighborhood who come to help her and check on her regularly.

Here is Angelina in her new house. The team built this house - handicap accessible - wider doors and lower windows. 

It takes a lot of people working together to make something like this happen. Not only the people pictured here, but all the people back home who are praying and who donated money to buy the materials and send this team down here.   There are also a lot of people working and praying from the Dominican Republic to make sure things go smoothly for them while they are here.

We can build a new house like this for $1500.

I would like to continue building homes like this for others in the community. Pastor Carlos has a long list of people who are waiting for a new home.

If you'd like to "donate a house" or give towards the construction of a new house, you can send a check to Woodridge Church Att: Jenny Koehnen 1500 Cty Rd 24 Medina, MN 55356.

Have a fantastic weekend!!

Love, Kristin