Strangers Become Friends

April 24, 2013 by Leave a Comment
HFH Spa Night - what a blessing!

HFH Spa Night – what a blessing!

Every family we meet has their own story. They are each unique and loved by God. At first they come to us as strangers, but we pray and encourage them as they quickly become friends. Our family care volunteers commit to learn each family’s story, and through that process, build relationship. Ultimately, our volunteers become a part of the story. We watch this happen as new friends spend time together, share meals, and begin to love one another. Often volunteers dive deeply enough to share both tears and joy with families.  HFH volunteers commit their time to build relationships with families and live out these verses from Romans 12:

Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.

The hearts of our volunteers are large!! Week in and week out, they pour out the love of Christ and live out the gospel. Recently I was having dinner with one of our Family Care volunteers, Josh, and he made the following statement, “We set out to bless a family whose child was sick. What happened is that we have been blessed by them. I’m pretty sure we have gotten more out of this relationship than we have given.” As a staff we want to express our sincere gratitude for all of our family care volunteers. “We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Filed Under: Families and Friends, Volunteer Tagged With:

Where you Invest your Love, You Invest your Life

April 22, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Let’s put on our party hats and celebrate! It’s National Volunteer Week and organizations all over the country will honor ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Across our great nation volunteers make a difference. This year’s theme is “Celebrating People in Action”. At Habitat for Hope, our volunteers serve families day in and day out. I love these lyrics from Mumford and Sons song Awake My Soul.

In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die
Where you invest your love, you invest your life
In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die
Where you invest your love, you invest your life
Awake my soul, awake my soul Awake my soul
You were made to meet your maker

Habitat for Hope Volunteers get it. They choose to invest their love. They choose to invest their lives. They know that we are all on the brink of eternity and they choose to live in such a way that honors their Maker and willingly pour out their hearts on behalf of others. It is truly a beautiful sight to behold. Here’s a note of thanks from one of our apartment families – the Greggs – that best highlights the actions of HFH volunteers.

Effie Gregg and father, Brad

Effie Gregg and father, Brad

Our family would like to thank Habitat for Hope and all of your volunteers. The apartment was a house of healing. When we arrived there were necessities, toiletries etc., waiting. We were blessed with meal upon meal. What a blessing all of the food was to our family, especially during chemo week. There were meals delivered around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Our children received gifts paid for with gift cards. The kids were even blessed with stockings already filled. Mom really liked that one! You were the church to us during our time away from our own church family! We felt very loved. Effie is cancer free! We pray that it does not come back, ever! Finally, after six months we are home home. Thank you for making our journey a little easier financially as well as emotionally and spiritually. Our family is grateful for all of you! Last but definitely not least, thanks for your prayers! Sincerely, Brad, Alysia, Essie, Alexis, Nic, and Effie Gregg

Filed Under: Encouragement, Families and Friends, Volunteer Tagged With:

Love and Pasta!

March 4, 2013 by 1 Comment

Written by Jennifer Dover

Do you ever have those days that far exceed anything you could ever imagine, no matter how hard you try? That happened to me this past Friday as a group of precious women met together for the purpose of making pasta.  I did nothing to organize this amazing event, it just happened to take place in my home at the Habitat for Hope property. Many people do this kind of thing together but this was pasta making with a unique purpose. All of the pasta we made will be going to provide a meal to  Habitat For Hope families. We all know how quickly fast food and hospital food gets old, so we hope this will be a little ray of light to some weary taste buds. But, our hearts desire is that it will convey to the recipients that they are loved, that someone cares about them and they are not alone in this battle with their sick child. The really cool thing about Friday was half of the people who came were people I had never met before. It didn’t take long to get to know one another as we all had the opportunity to share our life stories throughout the day. Although we were all very different, we had come together for one purpose and amazing things happened. All the ladies there at some point have experienced hurt, affliction, disappointment and loneliness, just like the families we serve. One particular lady named Emily was currently going through something pretty devastating but the joy of the Lord radiated from her, I noticed it the first moment I laid eyes on her. If you think about Emily this week, say a prayer for her and ask the Lord to encourage her and continue to bring people into her life so she can shine the Light of Jesus on them. The recipients of these delicious meals will  likely never meet many of the ladies who worked hard and joyfully to prepare them a meal. They will never know their stories, all the trials the Lord has or is currently bringing them through, or the beauty of their friendship. But our hope is that they will feel loved, cared for and encouraged – that through something as simple as homemade pasta, Christ would accomplish infinitely more that we could ever ask or imagine (Eph. 3:20).

 

Filed Under: Encouragement, Families and Friends, Volunteer

Homecomings

February 28, 2013 by Leave a Comment

written by Jennifer Dover

Dover and Ewing kids

Dover and Ewing kids

 

The past several months have been filled with times of transition for our family… including a season of life I choose to call homecomings. Each homecoming different but a homecoming none the less. First our family made the move to the Habitat For Hope house. After a long journey and way to much to tell you in this blog post, we arrived at the place the Lord had been preparing us for and it felt good to be home. As with all transitions, there were adjustments to be made. We had to get used to having neighbors right under our feet again and learning to keep our noise level down. That may not sound too hard but when you have 3 energetic loud little boys (and one learning from big brothers), it’s not as easy as it sounds. The really sweet thing about living in the house and in community with another family has been watching our kids bond with theirs and almost immediately became fast friends. We could see the Lord using their kids to help ours make the transition and vise versa. It was a beautiful thing to behold. This family moved out recently, and to the praise and glory of God, got to take their precious baby with them and return home together…as a family. I’ll have to admit I was sad to see them go; yet, overjoyed for them at the same time. Their baby is doing well and is making great progress; they have a steadfast, unwavering faith in God and they are home after 6 months of being away. I can imagine it was an emotional but joyful homecoming. I saved the best homecoming for last, the day my mom went home to be with Jesus. It may seem odd to some people for me to speak of death in this way – but isn’t this what we all long for, to be free from the pain of this imperfect world, and to enter that place where there is no death, tears, or even a hint of sorrow? She is finally free from the pain and suffering that kept her from so much in this life. I am extremely sad because in my flesh I miss her and all that she added to our life, but in my spirit, I rejoice because she has received the goal of her faith, the salvation of her soul. I too long for and await that homecoming day but for now I take joy in the earthly homecomings that are but shadows on the wall of the one to come.

Filed Under: Encouragement, Families and Friends

Our gracious volunteers – Josh and Jordan

February 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment

josh and jordanHow can I possibly paint an accurate picture of how Habitat for Hope volunteers build a community of support around families whose children are seriously ill? It’s almost as elusive as trying to paint an actual picture, especially for a non-artist like myself.  Each week I watch in awe as our volunteers dedicate themselves to building relationships with families by getting to know them and looking for opportunities to serve. Their ministry is an act of love.  Each volunteer adds their color to our canvas.  Here is a story of one volunteer family which beautifully illustrates the ministry of all of our volunteers.  This is simply one story among so many that fill our canvas with beautiful, vibrant colors.

Jordan and her husband Josh are newlyweds who relocated to Memphis last fall to participate in the Downline Emerging Leaders program and we are very thankful they have partnered with us in ministry during this season in their lives.

“We met the Wilson family last September. Our first time meeting them was when we took a few snacks to their house after they had spent almost all day at the hospital. I will admit that we were a little nervous as this was our first time visiting with a HFH family!  However, we could not have been more pleased to meet such an amazing, loving family. All three children welcomed us with open arms as though they had known us for years. Children typically have the amazing ability to immediately make you feel like a best friend! We instantly fell in love with them and are awed with how the Lord has used their family to bless us in numerous ways over the past few months. 

One of our favorite times with the Wilsons happened two weeks ago. One Saturday morning we picked the kids up, picked up a pizza, and brought them to our house. For the next 3 hours, the five of us, Josh and I included, jumped on the trampoline, went down the zipline, played on the seesaw, and ran around in the yard. I was amazed and continue to be amazed at the precious joy in these children. Although we began our relationship with them as mere strangers, we have slowly entered their life as they have entered ours. We are eager to see where the Lord leads our friendship with the Wilsons over the next few months. My prayer is that they might see Jesus in us as much as we see Him in them.”

I’m so thankful that Josh and Jordan and all of the volunteers of Habitat for Hope are willing to “be imitators of God, as beloved children.  And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”  My prayer is the picture we are painting is simply this…a picture of Jesus!!  He is our Hope!!

Filed Under: Families and Friends, Volunteer
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