On the road (and off) again

We just got home from a week long trip to Americus. We drove this time—1500 miles each way—so that we could bring some things from Colorado for our Georgia home. Sheilla, who has a natural decorating sense, wanted to civilize the place as well, and did an outstanding job with limited resources. We lived in Americus in the 90s and truly enjoyed our Southern experience. We made a lot of friends there—many are gone now, but those that remain are welcoming us back home.

We’d forgotten about the climatic challenges. It was in the high 90s all week with humidity in the same range. They now have what they call the heat index (sort of a chill factor in reverse) that made things seem worse. When we got back to Colorado Springs a storm blew through and lowered the outside temperature to 57°! Sometimes I feel like I live in parallel universes.

We had a good week. I always enjoy my time in the Americus office. The staff is motivated and energizing and we always come up with a slew of new ideas. The staff picture above was taken last week. Sharon Tarver is missing—she’s been through a courageous battle against breast cancer over the past year—and she’s winning! Going through this with her and watching her faith give her strength has been inspiring to all of us at The Fuller Center.

One of the highlights of the trip happened on our way home. We stopped in McDonough where The Fuller Center of Greater Atlanta was hosting 120 student volunteers who were spending the weekend helping rehabilitate 16 homes. They are part of the River of Life Program of the United Methodist Church’s North Georgia Conference. It was great spending some time with these kids and the homeowners. They let me up on the roof of Miss Lillie Miller’s house to pound a nail or two. I don’t get to do that very often and it was a treat. I’m proud to say that there were no injuries as a result of my engagement on that roof.

Miss Lillie lives in a house that was built about 60 years ago and she’s lived there for 54 of them. The house is solid but needs work. Some of the floors are giving out and the roof leaks. But soon she’ll have a restored home where she can live with dignity and comfort. And, through the Greater Blessing Program, she’ll have the chance to share her blessing with others as all of the payments she makes will be gifts that will help another family have a restored home as well. Mark Galey and his team at the Atlanta Fuller Center deserve a tip of the hat for putting this great event together.

These are exciting times for The Fuller Center for Housing. A Global Builders team led by Millard and Linda’s daughter in law and Fuller Center Board member Dianne Fuller just returned from El Salvador. Other GB teams are getting ready to head off for Armenia, Peru and Nigeria. Next week the Bicycle Adventurers will set off from Benton Harbor, Michigan, on their 1300 mile trek to the Florida Gulf coast. And building projects are underway all around the world. It’s a great time to be a part of this ministry.

It’s good to be home, though now I have the mixed blessing of having homes in two very distinct parts of the country. But as they say, home is where the heart is, so I’m almost always at home.