 |
| One of the homes worked on during the week that got a new deck, fresh paint, as well as some yard work. |
Last year the group repaired 25 homes in the Ogden area. So when members in the Bountiful congregation suggested a project in West Bountiful, everyone jumped on board.
“We don’t come in assuming what a city needs,” said [Jimi] Pitts. “Mayor Romney and Craig Howe have been excellent to help us find people in need. It means so much more when people are in need (of our service.)”
Pitts said his unconventional looks [my note: Jimi has long hair and big earrings--somewhat unconventional in very conventional Bountiful] sometimes worry people when he shows up to their home. “They want to call the cops on me,” he laughed. “In today’s economy it’s hard for people to accept that there are no strings attached. This is genuine. We’re not looking for something. People just don’t get that today.”
Homeowner Tanya Hodges agrees. “I thought, ‘what’s this going to cost us?’” she said when she filled out the paperwork. “It’s hard to believe they are just doing it. This is very exciting.”
Two interesting stories from the event:
A woman who owned one of the houses we worked on wasn't at home when Jimi and a city official came by to talk to her (a couple of months before the event). Her elderly father was there, and they told him they were interested in painting the house and doing other work for free, leaving a number for his daughter to call when she returned. The message to the daughter came across as "the city came by and said you need to paint your house." She became very worried and could not sleep that night, because though she knew her home's exterior really was in poor shape, she could not afford even the supplies, let alone paying someone to paint it. When she called the number the next day and found out that it wasn't a mandate, but rather an offer to work on her house for free, she was overjoyed.
One day while my team was cutting down several dead and dying trees for the city (which was desperately needed, but not in the small city's budget--I think we ended up doing over 30 pretty big trees), we talked to a woman who lived nearby. She mentioned that she had done quite a bit of work trimming trees and had some large branches that had fallen during a wind storm. She had recently had shoulder surgery, and wanted to know if we remove a huge branch from her property with our truck and allow her to dump a pickup full of tree trimmings in our dumpster. After we helped her with those things, we were talking with her friend who wanted to know about our church. After telling her what we were about and that we were just trying to do what we could to help people know they are loved by God, she explained how she had not set foot in a church in decades because of how she had been terribly hurt by people in a church and vowed never to go back. I pray that we were able to break that ice and that we or another church will see her soon.
If you're interested in other stories or photos, feel free to check out the event's Facebook page, which includes participant photos, as well as notes from the mayor of West Bountiful and a few homeowners who had their homes worked on.
