One of our board members learned through Metro Changers of a gentleman in his 70s who had been diagnosed with cancer and whose home was in need of painting (photos below). After pressure washing and caulking this home on Monday, April 25th, the home was painted on Saturday morning, April 30, 2011. A couple of volunteers finished up the trim work on May 21, 2011.
Before
A request for a ramp came from Family Comfort Hospice for a client living in Calera. This client was very frail and had other home repair issues as well–her porch and living room flooring was unstable, her bathroom was not functional, and she needed an air conditioning unit for her bedroom.
Steps from the home
Unstable porch (note unsecured cinderblock steps)
Six of our friends from the Catalyst group in Calera and three men from the client’s church worked to get a ramp built on Saturday, May 7, 2011. Frank returned later with an angel and added it to the ramp:
God blessed Hearts In Hands in a big way last Thursday evening at our Fundraiser Dinner at Frankie’s Market Cafe.
We’d like to thank everyone for their generous support–both in resources and time. Through dinner and merchandise sales and donations, enough was raised to meet the critical needs of several more clients. We’re excited to see where God takes these resources in serving those He intends for us to reach.
Please pray for us–
Finally some good weather to get to work on some jobs!
Our project on Saturday, February 12, 2011, was to get metal roofing installed to a kitchen room addition in desperate need of repair. The photos below show how urgently this was needed before our rainy Spring arrives.
Unfinished room addition
Damaged ceiling from leaking roof
Damaged ceiling
Sadly, the hospice patient who lived here passed away in November before we could complete this work, but we were committed to helping this family. A couple of adult volunteers and one teen volunteer went to the site in Montevallo, and with the help of a few of their family members, we installed a metal roof on this addition. A huge Thank You to our friend, James, from Shared Properties, who generously provided the metal roofing material for this project.
In early October we learned of a hospice patient in Calera who needs to leave her home for dialysis three times a week. She also has pancreatic cancer, but her chemotherapy has been stopped because it is doing more harm than good. The stairs to get in and out of her home for dialysis were very difficult for her to use. On October 14, 2010, our friend Steve (from the Catalyst group) who lives in Calera went to the home to take photos and to assess what would be needed to build this patient a ramp.
On Saturday, October 30, 2010, a group of four volunteers led by Steve finished this ramp in one day–even though it needed to be just a little larger than planned. They did not get to meet the patient the ramp was built for, but they prayed over the ramp and prayed for her and her family. Steve got a telephone call from her that evening to say how much she liked and appreciated the ramp and to express her thanks to everyone.
On Saturday, October 9, 2010, a group of five adult and two teen volunteers set out early to work on a ramp project in Sylacauga. This client is a 39-year-old cancer survivor. Her radiation treatment has left her unable to walk and confined to a wheelchair. But she was also confined to her home by her existing ramp, which was far too steep for her to navigate–even with someone to assist her.
She had not been able to leave her home in nine months, and she was hoping to be able to get outdoors soon to enjoy the fall weather and colors.
After a prayer led by the client’s pastor, the volunteers removed the old ramp and constructed a new, safer ramp for her in one day. The teens also spent some time with the client’s son, playing basketball and building a new relationship. As you can see by the photos, our volunteers are getting quite good at this!
July 8 through 17, 2010, we traveled to Granada, Nicaragua, to visit our son and daughter-in-law for a week and to work cooperatively with their efforts in Granada. Our project was to help a single mother of four sweet little girls.
One immediate need she had was for repairs to a walkway to her home, which was washing away in the rainy season. The walkway is their only access to their home, and it is narrow and treacherous under good conditions.
A view of the dangerous walkway
Another view
Boards laid over mud
The eroding first step
Concrete steps previously placed by another group
Frank IV knew a local craftsman, Ramone, who had done some work at his house.
Frank III, Treyson and Ramone
Ramone was busy working on his own home, but he was in need of supplies. So we bartered with him for labor in exchange for supplies for his own home. Ramone and a friend of his who knew masonry assessed the job, compiled a list of supplies and traveled with the guys to the local hardware store. “Travel” in Granada is on foot, bicycle, horse, bus or taxi. Very few people in Granada own their own car. “Delivery” is pretty much the same. Here’s a photo of our supplies being delivered!
Our supplies being delivered
Cinderblocks, sand and concrete couldn’t be “delivered” to the house and had to be hand-carried along the pathway. A number of neighbors came out to help get the sand and concrete to the house in buckets, where it then had to be hand-sifted and hand-mixed .
A young helper
Carrying buckets along the narrow path
Sifting
Mixing concrete and sand
Mixing sand and concrete
Digging out the washed out soil
Rebuilding the wall with block
Almost complete
The completed block wall and concrete section
After the wall was complete, a security door was built to hinder unwelcome access to the home.
Building the door
Placing the door
Finishing the security door
We had purchased a Spanish bible of the New Testament before we left the States. Frank III learned that the family did not have a bible, so he gave Masiel the one we had brought. She read to her family from it before they went to bed that night.
We received word of a concern from our church for a lady living in the East Thomas area of Birmingham. Her home’s furnace was broken, and she also had no air conditioning. Frank made a trip to her home to assess the job and meet the homeowner, Ms. B.
He learned that Ms. B had temporary custody of her sister’s two sons, and she was trying to be awarded permanent custody. One of the boys has respiratory problems, and the heat aggravates his condition. DHR would not approve her home without heat and a/c, and there was some risk she could lose temporary custody. As difficult as it was for her, she and the boys were staying in motels at night.
We sent a technician out to her home to see if the immediate need for air conditioning was a possibility, but his estimate was over $3,000–much more than Hearts In Hands had available. But in a “chain of events”–really a chain of connections–that could only be God, this story has a happy ending:
Glory to God–the Master Planner–for bringing all of us together on this project.
On Saturday, June 26, 2010, a couple of our friends from the Catalyst group in Calera traveled to a home in Montevallo belonging to an elderly couple. One of the men had heard of the difficulty the couple were having managing the steps from their home to their car. The two guys did a great job on this ramp, as you can see below. A huge thank you to them for volunteering to head this job up and getting it done!
