Emily's Habitat for Humanity Trip

Emily is one of our Certified Veterinary Technicians. A couple years ago she participated in Habitat for Humanity. The following excerpts are from her scrapbook about the trip:

“We finally made it to our destination – the Salvation Army Camp… It is so devastating and heartbreaking to see and try to imagine what it must have been like. I can’t fathom losing my home and everything I own! It’s all very unbelievable. You just keep shaking your head in disbelief as you look at things.”

“Our first Day on the Job!”

“Bill and Fran – France! – France are the Project Managers. They are great people. Bill was a little gruff at first but he came around and I ended up really liking him. Their story is a great testimony. The way people’s lives can be changed because of God is amazing. To hear about their past and to see where they are now is an inspiration. And I can’t tell this story without writing about Spirit! He is their dog. He’s a Shiba Inu – a friendly Shiba Inu as amazing as that sounds! He is so handsome. I loved getting my animal fix everyday – being a Vet Tech, I need that.”

“We met a lot of great people. About six of the women from our cabin were from the St. Paul area. There were also a couple of men from Amery, where I was born. It’s a small world.”

“We worked on South Carolina Ave. there were about 20 houses on the street. Some were already being lived in, some were the original houses. And about 10 were the Habitat ones we were working on. One of the houses was quite a ways down the road so we called that ‘going to North Carolina.’”

“There were some amazing stories to hear about the owners of the new homes. A mother and her son were in their mobile home when the storm hit. They could see the walls being sucked in and out by the wind. When the storm had passed and they opened their door to look out, the only thing left of their mobile home was the room they had taken shelter in. God was definitely watching over them. Amazing!”

“The house was finished.”

“We met the Executive Director of Habitat for Gulfport; His name was Sidney. He asked me about being there and I told him our story. We were a group of six churches of different denominations getting together to help build a Habitat house. We all rode down in a van and never argued with each other – we all got along. We’re all here for the same reason – to help people in need. We do this because of Jesus Christ. He loves us and we want to return and show that love to others. Sidney, it turns out is also a pastor. He said he was going to use our story for his Sunday sermon. So many times you hear about the different denominations bad mouthing each other. This just proves that we all can get along if we remember it’s all about Jesus. He died on the cross for our sins to save us. I thought that was pretty awesome that he used our story!”

“We’re finally home! You would think that I would be more glad to be here but the truth is I’m really going to miss everyone. The time flew by so fast – too fast. I consider all these people to be friends. I can’t believe I won’t be talking to them to know how their lives are going. How are your wives?, your kids?, which college did your son decide to go to?, how’s the reading tutoring going?, how’s your daughter and grandson? I feel sad about it. They are all such awesome people with great personalities. I didn’t expect to get to know each other as well as we did. I will truly miss and think about each one of them. Someday I hope to work together on the actual River Falls Church House once the money is raised. I hope to run into some of them when I’m out and about in River Falls.”

“This was an awesome experience! I could do this again and again. I WILL do this again. What a great God we have. I was so blessed to have gotten the chance to meet these people and to help humanity. God is awesome!”