Posted: 5/19/03
| Members of Southland Baptist Church in San Angelo dedicate lumber to be used in the Habitat project, part of the church's 25th anniversary celebration.”To have children give $2.50 for a 2 x 4 stud, and then to see that stud become a part of someone's house, that's when missions becomes real.” |
San Angelo church builds a mission project in parking lot
By George Henson
Staff Writer
SAN ANGELO–Southland Baptist Church in San Angelo may be setting a record for the shortest distance ever traveled on a mission trip. This mission is taking shape on the church parking lot.
Church volunteers are building a three-bedroom Habitat for Humanity house. But instead of building it on-site, as most Habitat groups do, the San Angelo church is constructing its house on cinder blocks in the parking lot. The house will be moved after completion.
The project has been undertaken in conjunction with celebration of the church's 25th anniversary later this year.
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“We wanted to do more than celebrate,” said Dwain Dodson, who is overseeing the construction. “We wanted to do something outside the walls of the church, and the idea of a Habitat house really caught on as a mission project.”
Pastor Bill Shiell concurred the congregation felt that more than a celebration was in order.
“People like to throw birthday parties for themselves, but we wanted to throw one for our community,” he said. “We can in no way repay what has been done for us over the last 25 years, but we wanted to show our appreciation.”
The Habitat house is scheduled to be only the first of 25 mission projects the church does to celebrate its anniversary.
Church leaders decided to erect the house on the parking lot to increase involvement, Dodson said. “Having it here at the church has really stirred up some enthusiasm.”
That enthusiasm hasn't been limited to the church's members alone. After the first day of construction, the local Habitat office said it received more calls than ever before from individuals curious about what was going on and from other groups in the community wanting to know how they could become involved. The church is located on heavily traveled Loop 306.
To raise the $30,000 needed to build the house, church members collected offerings large and small, mainly small.
For publicity, organizers broke down expenses to bite-size pieces, illustrating, for example, that a donation of 28 cents was important because it would pay for one of the 216 joist hangers.
“Building this house is the best thing that I have ever done with a church,” Shiell said. “It's is so hard to get people's hands on missions, but to have children give $2.50 for a 2 x 4 stud, and then to see that stud become a part of someone's house, that's when missions becomes real.”
Children and youth classes took those studs and then drew hearts and crosses and wrote Scripture verses and religious sayings such as “'Jesus loves you' on them.” Some of those were brought forward in an April dedication service in which the presenters and the choir wore yellow hard hats.
“It was quite compelling,” Shiell recalled. “It was really a joyful time.”
The only hard part, Dodson reported, is finding a good place to cut those inscribed boards.
The house will be dedicated and church members will prayerwalk around it and through it Aug. 16. It then will be moved about three miles to its permanent location at a cost estimated to be under $1,500.
Southland members plan to build a second Habitat house in the near future as well. When they do, they hope to partner with another church that doesn't have the funds necessary to build their own house so that the blessing can be shared and a relationship fostered.
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