Mississippi Project

Just a reminder. The time will soon be here to travel to Mississippi to help with a Habitat for Humanity project in the small towns of Farrell and Sherard. The dates are October 1 through October 7 (including travel time). Since October is cotton harvest time, you will get to see cotton being picked, enjoy fellowship and help a deserving family realize a dream of decent, affordable housing. Please join us. Call the church office at 630-968-6231.

Here's the story of the last Mississippi trip:

Phil and Karen Bellefuil, Bob Adams, and two gentlemen from Sullivan, Illinois, spent the week of October 3 through the 9th, 2004, in Sherard/Farrell, Mississippi, working on a home with Habitat for Humanity. We were doing our small part of trying to show "God's love in action." The house that is being built at this time needed the dry walling completed and the seams taped and mudded. We measured and cut and hung drywall and then we played in the drywall mud. When the week was done we were able to see the progress we had made. We had tangible evidence of our labor (other than the sore muscles that talked to us).

The homeowner for the current house is a recently widowed man and his daughter. The man has just been diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing treatments so was unable to be with us.

We were able to tour the house we had worked on during our last trip in March. It is complete and the homeowner has moved in and is very proud of his home. He worked with us in March and we got to know him and his wife. The smiles on their faces spoke a lot of what they were feeling inside.

Here are pictures of the house from March:

Their old, run-down house

The new house, which we helped build

A highlight of the week is always the potluck dinner brought in by the local people. We eat home cooked Southern food and get to talk to previous homeowners and neighbors. They are very generous in their sharing of food and stories. Their willingness to share their faith and gratitude to God is an inspiration.

We all agreed that the week sped by and feel we are blessed to have been able to share what God has first given us.

- Karen and Phil Bellefuil