On a cold, snowy Saturday in December I joined 4 girls from my bible study and 30+ other volunteers at the local Habitat for Humanity build sight. With the impending bad weather, we were sure as heck we'd be inside painting or something. Boy were we wrong! And mostly because I opened my big mouth and volunteered us for trusses. "Oh that sounds like fun," I said, as my hand shot up. Well fun was ten feet in the air in a second floor room with incomplete roof coverage. Did I mention it was a cold and snowy day?
Four of us girls and one unsuspecting guy headed up the ladder to meet our build leader. I could only imagine what was going through his mind as he saw four girls emerge through the second story window. For nearly three hours we stood up in the rafters on 2x4's hammering away at the boards that would become the structural support for the house's roof. As we broke for lunch, our build leader looked around and was suprised to see that we had completed about a full day's work in three hours.
The break for lunch came at the right time. Wet, hungry, and cold to the core, we huddled around a propane heater emitting 50,000 BTUs of glorious heat as we waited for our warm pizza to arrive. Nearly dry and well fed, we climbed back up the ladder for two more hours of snowy work. When quitting time came, we gladly cleaned up our tools, stood back, and admired the hard work we had accomplished.
Where does the Christmas come in for this memory? I don't know yet. But I can only hope that once this house is finished and the fortunate family who moves in will make and have years of wonderful Christmas memories to look back on. I can just picture what this house would look like with Christmas lights along the trim, especially as the snow fell on us that cold, Saturday afternoon.
(Pictures from the build are coming - experiencing slight difficulties w/ the camera.)
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