Monday, March 9, 2009

Lending a Hand

I volunteered to help build a house here in San Antonio, Texas!

Habitat For Humanity. I already knew they are a Christian organization, but I did not know they build houses all over the world. I have always been interested in participating in this project--helping a low-income family by spending a small portion of my time building their home. http://www.habitat.org/

Last Friday, March 6, was my day to spend working on our assigned house. There are several houses being built on that street by other Habitat volunteers. Holy Trinity Catholic Church is assigned to one of those houses. On Friday, our group started on the roof, siding, and other outside stuff. The frame, electrical, plumbing, and slab had already been done by professionals. The volunteers get to do everything else. I am familiar with what goes on in building a house. I helped my parents build our house in Seguin, Texas when I was thirteen--we did almost all the work ourselves. I also watched the building of my current home. The process is not unfamiliar.

For this project, I just helped out where I was needed. I do not necessarily have any special skills, but I did what I could. We all did. I nailed things with a good ol' fashioned hammer--no nail guns for this group. I helped put up fascia. I even got to use a table saw. I was exhausted and dirty by the end of the day, but it was a good feeling.

YYY

Now for the not-so-good part. Yes, I am going to admit this. During the few days leading up to Friday, I just wanted it to be over. It is not that I did not want to help out a low-income family. It is not that I did not want to work hard. Actually, it was like anything else that I schedule myself to do. Whenever I have something planned that is outside my normal schedule, I just want it to be finished so I can go back to my normal schedule. Why is this? I really like doing new and different things, and I am not afraid to work hard or to put myself in new situations. I guess I am just a creature of habit, but I do not really want to be like this.

I suppose this is just one more thing I need to work on. Self-improvement can be so difficult . . . and neverending.

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