The House(s) that Anglicans Built
The first day of our Youth Habitat Build sounded a lot like this, “Miss, miss, miss, HIT! Miss, miss, miss, miss, HIT!” Big hammer, little nail, sounds easy enough doesn’t it? We are Allie Colp and Ashley Lockyer, two of the six youth from across the Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island who took part in the build. Also involved in this project were, Mike Janz ( NSPEI Youth Coordinator), Mark Grandmaison, and Natalie Purcell. Our group of nine spent a week working on three Habitat for Humanity homes in Sackville, NS during the last week in August.
We spent our days on the work site doing a variety of task and learning new things as we went. On the first day, when they asked for people to help build a deck, we jokingly said, “Can you imagine us trying to build a deck?” By the fourth day, our group had built three. We learned to use power tools to cut boards with a circular saw, and drill spindles for the railings of the decks. We also hammered boards, installed closet doors, painted ceilings and walls, trimmed doors, cleaned windows, organized the supply trailer, and put up siding, among other things. It seems like a lot of hard work, and it was, but we had a lot of fun doing it. While working, we often broke into random song, clucking like chickens when we didn’t know the words.
Each of us had our own reasons why we wanted to be involved in this project:
(Allie) My reason was that this was so different from any other youth activity I had been involved with. Instead of being a week that was all about us, we were focusing a lot of our time and energy helping others, and Habitat for Humanity has always been something that I’ve wanted to be involved in.
(Ashley) I wanted to participate because I know of a family who have benefited from a Habitat Home and I wanted to be part of helping another family to have the same opportunity for a new start.
After our days on the site we returned to Mike’s house. This was our home for the week. When we were there, we went swimming, had campfires, and ate lots of delicious food courtesy of Mike’s wife Lisa (Thanks!) Also every night we shared evening worship. We really enjoyed being there and appreciated the warm welcome we received.
The Crew!
One of the houses we helped to build
