habitat for humanity

This Week at UCMHE; blog below

Due to finals week, normal activities and gatherings will continue, but be on an informal basis.

Monday: The Peace with Justice intern meeting is rescheduled to Monday morning at 10 am in the Crimson Room.

This week we will host a leadership meeting to set details for the Volunteer mission trip to Gretna (near New Orleans) LA. So far there are ten students from UNO, five from UNL and a few who are on a fishing expedition to go with us. We will be on the bus with folks from a variety of area churches as well.

Responses to Intimate Partner Violence Planning meeting will be Thursday at 10:00 am in SPO.

While this week looks like a slower week schedule wise, it’s not. Call or write for details.



Now the blog:

Saturday was our Second Saturday of Service project. One of our four purposes is to “be useful”. Christians, in our view, should be useful to in our culture. This fall, we’ve adopted Habitat for Humanity as our thing to do. This year, Omaha’s Habitat for Humanity has been busy building seven homes for folks who qualify. Next year, they’re going for fourteen!

Anyhow, twelve of us met up at Caffeine Dreams at 8:30 AM on Saturday (yes, pilgrims, that the morning time). After filling out forms and receiving some excellent liquid refreshment, we had a quick orientation and went on to the headquarters at 22nd and Ames for our assignment, which turned out to be 4421 Himebaugh Avenue. This area of town was new to some of our drivers, so we snaked our way through the streets of O! as a unit.

Our job, according to Mike and Kate, (Americorps supervisors from fabulous Cheboygan, WI) was to help prime and paint the interior of the house, This house, and others, will be dedicated by the end of the year and occupied shortly thereafter. If we could get things painted, electrical switches could be installed, the cabinets could be hung and flooring and carpeting installed in the next two weeks.

We put ourselves to the paint, cleaned our brushes at the halfway point and came back to finish painting the kitchen/living room area. We left the bedrooms to those who would come after us in the afternoon.

Giving ourselves to help others is a practical adult skill. It’s a mature thing to do. And it was fun, too.

Here are some photos for you and comments:

“It was fun—even in the cold! Better than sleeping in!” Declan McElroy
“At the end of today, I know I’ll feel like I really did something worthwhile.” Laura Sectell
“Eggshell is a texture, not a color! And it was amazing.” Jordan Farrell
“I like helping the community” Sarah Pierson