Monday, March 30, 2009

Building a DREAM!!!






We hosted a group from UA's Wesley Foundation over spring break. They worked on the house, re-vamped the clothes closet, and had a kids camp. The week was incredible. Thanks for all the prayers! There are some photos from the week above. We got tons of work done! We also had the opportunity to introduce the students to foster families in Opelika. Meeting the families and playing with the kids was a great experience for our group. They were able to see first hand the families their contribution to BigHouse would help.
Hannah Sewell led worship each night with Seth and Matthan Brown, and we had speakers from our community as well. A big thanks to Stan and Kelly Cox and Michael and Angie Brown for being INCREDIBLE all week. They helped with food, speakers, work on the house, and talking to the students about their lives as foster parents. Also, a huge thanks to Alexia Frazier and Kathy Ward for providing us dinner and sharing their own insight into foster families. The Fraziers have fostered OVER 500 children!!! We were also thankful to have the support of Lee County DHR! Thanks to all the directors and social workers who came to the cook-out and to see the house. Jan Burke, Carolyn Hunter, Sheila Godfrey, Yolanda Ratchford, Allison Foster, and many others who came to support BigHouse. We are really proud that they want to help us!
We are also excited to work closely in the future with Shane Kyles and The Way ministries. He came and shared his experience with our group, and his vision for helping those in the Lee County area.
Many others contributed to our trip by providing meals for the group. Michael and Ellen Melnick, Jill Long, Denise Hankins, Leann Tyer, Tiffany Cook and her Sunday School Class, and the Foster Parent Association. Others who helped make this trip possible are Jeff and Lisa Skinner, Jason and Lisa Smith, Susan Rudd, Pam Coxwell, Terri Neighbors, and Britney Finley. A special thanks to the Confirmation class at First United Methodist Church in Opelika for volunteering to help at our clothes closet during their spring break! Tim Gore and Victory Designs, we LOVE our T-shirts, and will hopefully be needing many more in the future! A big thank you to Opelika High School, for allowing use of their gym floor to sleep on, as well as First Baptist Church for letting us use their youth building each night! 
I would also like to thank others who helped us working on the house! Roger Broom, Megan and Adam Dimon, and Kara Leigh Pritchard all came and pitched in during the week. Billy Smith, a professional painter, not only volunteered his knowledge and expertise to help us with the painting, he spent many hours that week at the house stripping doors and molding. A big thanks to all of them!
I am also incredibly grateful to our friends at the Wesley Foundation! They gave up a relaxing spring break to come and work at BigHouse. They are so supportive of our dream, and it is clear through their actions! Thank you all for believing in us and wanting to be a part of it! 

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