I met Merle and Michelle Waldron ten years ago in Biloxi Mississippi. They were there working with a group of church members from Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Minnesota. Within their church, they have formed a mission team called Acts 29. The stories of the early Christians are recorded in a book of the New Testament called Acts of the4 Apostles. It is composed of 28 chapters. Hence the name of their group- they are actively composing the 29th chapter of the activities of the present day saints.
     This past week, fourteen members of Acts 29 drove two days from Minnesota to work with Habitat Tuscaloosa . This is their fourth visit with us. We had many "repeat offenders"- those who had been with us on the last three visits. People like Craig, John, Missy, Chris, Deb, Merle and Michelle, Al, Thomas and Tom, as well as newbies like Shelly and the full Monty.
     As things worked out, unfortunately, the project that we would be working on was in Pickens county, and would have the group driving an additional hour each day to get to the site.
     There was a tornado that hit Pickens county this past February 2nd. It destroyed about 40 homes in this rural county of Alabama, just near the Mississippi border. One of the homes was owned by Mr. Joe Long. Both his small home and trailer on site were completely destroyed. Joe happens to be the man with the key to the local storm shelter, so he was not in his home when the storm hit. He was letting in the 240 people to the 100 person capacity shelter.
      Our Executive Director, Ellen Potts, drummed up funding for a new home to be built for Mr. Long. We have been wanting to build a tiny house for a long time now and since Joe lives by himself, Brandon floated the idear to him that we build a 740 square foot home instead of our usual 1200 . We think it will come in under $40,000. We eliminated one bedroom and one bathroom, the saferoom, the typical metal roof (architectural shingles generously donated by Mularky). Did the electrical work in house (no inspections required) and the mechanical consisted of thru-wall units. The plumber was the only subcontractor that we had to pay.
     We started with a slab on Monday. On Friday the exterior was completed (except painting) and on the inside, the drywall was all hung, but not taped. Our secret weapon, of course, is our marvelous Mennonites, who whooped the installation of the shingles in record time and also jumped in on the insulation (ugh!) and drywall.
     First three days of the build were upper 90's. We prayed hard for clouds and wind and had our prayers answered on Thurday and Friday.
      Right next door to the site was an air conditioned rec center where we enjoyed lunches prepared by local churches all week.
      Our construction director, Brandon Kasteler, set up a 3 week schedule for this home and with such a great first week, looks like we are on track.
      Acts 29 also presented Joe and the kitchen ladies with prayer shawls that were made back home.