| ** SURPRISE HOME MAKEOVER RESULTS IN TEARS AND CHEERS
Several years ago, Ed and Leah Bass purchased a home in Alvarado,
Texas. It was a fixer-upper, but the couple was determined to turn
the desperately needy house into their dream home. Step by step,
they started to repair and rebuild the house. Last July, the couple
went to pick out new paint colors and items for the house, dreaming
of what was to be.
Less than a week later, instead of standing side by side working on
their future together, Leah was standing in shock and disbelief at
Ed's graveside ‹ a massive heart attack having taken his life
without warning. Ed was 55 years old. And just four days after Ed's
funeral, Leah faced another huge emotional challenge when her mother
died.
Leah and Ed had begun as Chi Alpha pastors at Stephen F. Austin
University, serving that Texas college community for six years
before becoming pastors for the following two decades. In 1998, the
couple came on staff at Southwestern Assemblies of God University
(SAGU) in Waxahachie, Texas. A year later, Ed became the director of
the SAGU IT Department, where he served until his death.
For Leah, not only had she lost her life-long ministry companion and
confidant, and then her mother, she was left emotionally drained and
alone in a home that once was filled with dreams, but now was a
nightmare ‹ surrounding her with a multitude of problems she did not
have the skill, energy or finances to repair.
But then the Supreme Home Makeover Team (not to be confused with the
ABC program, "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition") stepped in.
Unless you're from the North Texas District, chances are good you
never heard of the Supreme team before. It was created last year
when University of Texas at Austin Chi Alpha co-Director Scott
Lansing and Campus Minister Dave Giles were trying to come up with a
way to involve Chi Alpha students in some type of compassion
ministry over spring break.
Supreme Home Makeover was born as they ended up hosting their first
makeover with the help of 50 students and dozens of businesses ‹
repairing and refreshing a missionary's home that had suffered flood
damage.
"After seeing the impact the first makeover had on the students'
lives, along with the impact on the missionary family, their
neighbors and business people," Giles says of their first
experience, "how could we not do a follow-up project this spring
break?"
Lansing and his wife Anita and Giles and his wife Libby, having been
made aware of Leah's situation through a district Chi Alpha staff
gathering, went to work. They began making phone calls, contacting
other Chi Alpha groups in the region as well as churches and local
businesses. In addition, last year's makeover recipient, Chi Alpha
North Texas District Director Gary Paschal ‹ an AG U.S. missionary ‹
played a key role in raising funds and helping network people and
businesses for this year's project.
However, perhaps what was the biggest challenge of all, they decided
to keep the makeover a secret ‹ not telling Leah what their plans
were.
"We contacted family members and let them know what we were hoping
to do ‹ we had to involve them if this was to work," Giles says.
"They were all very supportive of the idea and what we had planned.
We also had to inform and clear things with her boss at SAGU."
Despite the odds being against them, with so many people knowing
about the makeover at her church (Bethel Assembly), work, family and
even in the community, the plans for the makeover progressed, with
Leah never having a clue of what was coming her way.
On March 18, Leah was taken out of town by her father and sister for
a vacation in Missouri, and Giles and Lansing, with their
contractors and key staff, began work. They had to determine what
supplies were needed, get them delivered and get the project plans
laid out before the workforce arrived.
Over the next four days, members from 10 different Chi Alpha groups,
MAPS workers, neighbors, church members, missionaries (world and
U.S.), international students, SAGU staff members and business
people from the community descended upon Leah's home. At the peak of
the labor, more than 130 people were working on the home.
"We began at 8 a.m. and worked until 9 p.m. each day," Giles says,
"with some working into the wee hours of the morning to prepare for
the next day's work schedule." Each night busses would take the
exhausted students back to their beds at the AG Lakeview Conference
Center.
"One of the most difficult challenges, "Lansing shares, "was the
timing of the different projects that were all happening at the same
time. When you have 25 or 30 things happening at one time, it's
impossible to know what is happening with all of them. Thankfully,
we had contractors on site who were flexible and patient with the
dozens of questions that came their way."
The laundry list of repairs included: leveling the home, replacing
windows and installing siding on two sides of the home, replacing
roof trim and shingles, fixing all doorframes and trim, painting and
wallpapering throughout the house, remodeling both bathrooms,
replacing kitchen appliances, replacing tile and carpeting,
landscaping and a number of other projects ‹ including a deck and
adding a laundry room!
Even with many hands, the list of repairs needed was not light. Then
the repairs went from "challenging" to "God, we really need your
help" as unanticipated problems arose.
"As we took out the old flooring, we discovered two rooms had dry
rot and termites," Giles says, now able to chuckle at the additional
workload. "We had to take out walls and completely remove those
floors and rebuild them."
Even though the Supreme Makeover team went into the project with
strong backing by McCoy's Building Supplies, finances contributed by
individuals and organizations, and even a "contractor's discount"
from the local Lowe's, Giles says that during the project, God
continued to send help their way.
For example, a new deck was donated by Environmental Mill, a roofing
contractor unexpectedly sent out a team to roof the house, a
neighbor came by and volunteered his services as a cabinet maker and
made and installed new kitchen cabinets, and a friend of the family
ran into some makeover team members at a store, and ended up
volunteering many hours to help with the project.
On March 21, after more than 4,300 hours of combined labor, the team
was nearly done. But then came another surprise. Leah had decided to
leave Missouri a little earlier than planned. Her son Jared was sent
to intercept her and take her "out to eat" as the team worked to
complete the final touches before Leah's arrival.
"When they left the restaurant, we had pre-arranged to meet them in
a church parking lot, a few blocks from the house," Giles says. "We
didn't want to shock her too much, so Scott and I [along with
several family members] met her there and explained what had been
happening while she was gone . . . tears began to run down her
cheeks."
"When Jared first pulled off into the parking lot, and my father and
sister drove on ahead in their car," Leah recalls, laughing at the
memory, "I began to wonder if the kids had decided to try to do
something for the house, and gotten in over their heads."
Little did she know . . . .
"As they told me about what was going on, I was just trying to take
in everything," Leah says. "I was fighting tears ‹ no, I'm sure I
wasn't able to hold them back when they were talking to me about all
these people who wanted to do this for me . . . ."
When Leah arrived at her "new" home, it was dark, but spotlights
were on, revealing around 130 workers awaiting her arrival in eager
anticipation ‹ even though most had never met her before.
"I saw all these cars, a school bus . . . they were everywhere,"
Leah says. " I was in tears, but happy tears. I got out of the car
and they were flashing pictures all around me ‹ there were so many
students! They had a big sign welcoming me home and they gave me
flowers."
But what happened next still brings Leah to tears.
"They came up and gave me a T-shirt [like all the Supreme team
members were wearing] and it said, 'Supreme Home Makeover: 2009 Bass
Edition.' It touched me so much . . . ," Leah says, pausing as she
loses her battle to control the tears. "That was for Ed . . . it
was so beautiful to remember him in such a way, and to remember
me . . . ."
As Leah made her way toward the house, Giles says the students broke
out in wild cheering and clapping in an expression of love and a
release of the stress of the long hours they had labored together.
With tears streaming down her cheeks, Leah was overwhelmed by the
reception.
"I would have never had dreamed ‹ never ever dreamed ‹ anyone would
show that kind of love to someone, and I'll bet 90 percent didn't
even know me," she says. "They were just wonderful, wonderful! I
was so touched. Even now I don't have the words to say how touched
I've been. I really felt their love and their servants' hearts ‹
they did a beautiful job."
Student representatives from all the Chi Alpha groups then came
forward and together they prayed over Leah, asking God's blessing
and protection over her.
Then it was on to the house. Giles, Lansing and Mark Walker ‹ a
co-worker of Ed's from SAGU ‹ and several others took Leah on a tour
of her newly remodeled home. In every room they stopped, students
were gathered outside of the windows, pressing to see her reactions
and show their care for her. Giles adds that he believes that
through the makeover, people were extending love to Leah in ways
that helped ease some of her pain.
With the help of Leah's children, the Supreme team was able to use
the colors Ed and Leah had picked out together throughout the home.
And although they remodeled so many different areas, Leah says the
team kept the things that Ed had done that were special to her.
"They made things nicer, but they're [Ed's handiwork] still there,"
she says in obvious pleasure. "I am just amazed, I walk through the
house and just keep saying, 'This is amazing!'"
However, as much of an impact and blessing as the makeover was for
Leah, Giles says it may have had even more of an impact on Chi Alpha
students and other volunteers. Many called the event "life-changing"
for them and inquired about participating again next year.
"Towards the end of the makeover, these students were dead tired,
but they were still asking, 'What can I do next?'" Giles says. "It
was a tremendous experience."
For Lansing, knowing that they had made a lasting impact on Leah's
life, providing her with a beautiful, safe and now fully functional
home, will be something he never forgets.
Although Giles and Lansing envision this as at least a yearly effort
for UT-Austin Chi Alpha, they don't limit their dream.
"My hope and dream is, ultimately, that districts, sections and
churches all over the United States would be doing the same or
similar things, especially for missionaries, retired pastors or
widows of pastors," Giles says with great conviction. "Anybody could
do this ‹ men's ministries, women's ministries, Teen Challenge
groups. It wouldn't have to be as big as what we're doing, but even
working in smaller ways to show God's love in practical,
compassionate ways."
As team members boarded the vans and buses for the last time,
reluctant to leave the scene of this four-day ministry miracle,
Giles and Lansing handed them a carpenter's pencil that had the
McCoy slogan printed on it.
The words?
"Practice random acts of building."
For more information about UT-Austin Chi Alpha, see its Web site at
http://www.utChiAlpha.org. For the national Chi Alpha program, see
http://www.ChiAlpha.com.
--Dan Van Veen |
