Archive: Around Town

Kids were encouraged to bring in donations and to cash in cans and bottles to raise money.  Each time the cost of an interior door was reached a cardboard door, painted one of the colors of the rainbow, was set up.  Buy the end of the session two rainbows-worth of doors had been raised.

"I love the connection of God bringing his people home and building a home for a local family," Blair says.  "The kids really understood they were going to help somebody in this area, so a family would have a place to live.  They get very excited when they hear about need they can help do something about.  That's the most exciting part."

In a way the connection between the summer session and Habitat was made in heaven.  Tompkins County Habitat For Humanity board member Dave Nicholls is charged with faith relations, and is also a member of LUMC.  He says that because Habitat has been relatively inactive in Tompkins County there hasn't been much churches could do locally.  But recently the national Habitat awarded a three-year grant that allowed the local chapter to hire Christy Voytko as Executive Director.  The grant requires the local chapter to ramp up their building in Tompkins and Cortland Counties from an average of one house per year to three.

To do that the organization is going to need more local participation, and Nicholls says that building homes for local families in need is perfect mission work, not just for the opportunity to help, but also as fellowship and team-building exercises.

"I am very excited about the possibility of work days for churches," he says.  "Most churches now have a very good grasp of mission.  Not just what they can do for a mission project but what a mission project can do for them.  In the way of team building and fellowship."

That is going to be very important on the Lansing project, because delays in getting permits has meant that planned Wednesday and Saturday work parties have not yet begun.  The chapter has a goal of completing the house before December 1 so that Amber Little, who will move into the house with her children, can take advantage of a federal tax break for first-time homeowners.  Voytko and Nicholls say that additonal work sessions by church and other groups will be key in making that deadline.

While the Lansing house is being built Voytko will be overseeing committees, reaching out to the community, new businesses, and building partnerships with other non-profits, while working with the board to increase the chapter's local activity.

"This year we will continue to build one house," she says.  "The house is in Lansing, for Amber little.  The next year we're going to be building two houses, and the year after that we'll build three houses."

On the faith side, Nicholls is also ramping up his activity.  With no work sessions on the house, the Bethel Grove Church youth group volunteered to assemble and paint donation boxes that Nicholls plans to place in businesses around the two counties.  He also sees an opportunity in the local Roman Catholic community, which he says plans to merge into one church council while keeping their three existing worship centers in Dryden, Groton, and Lansing.

"Three parishes are served by the same priest, Father Scott Kubinski," he notes.  "If you pick a geographic center of those three parishes it's probably pretty close to Breed Road."

Since the local chapter of Habitat was founded in 1987 it has built eight houses in Cortland County and five in Tompkins County.  The current project will be the 14th house.  Voytko notes that while Habitat is a Christian organization it welcomes participation by people of all faiths or no faith.

"Habitat looks to bring together the entire community and welcomes volunteers from all faiths, or no faith, who actively embrace Habitat's goal of eliminating poverty housing from the world," she says.

On the first day at Vacation Bible School leaders cracked an egg.  Then someone stood on two dozen-egg cartons and not one egg cracked.

"The point was when we have God's help we can do amazing things," Blair says.   "Parallelling a lesson like that with an activity that makes a real difference is a life lesson that they're never going to forget.  It's rewarding to have an opportunity to put those kind of things in motion as a church."

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