The Promise of a New Day – Introducing FCH Iowa Lakes

Amy Peterson of Fostoria, Iowa, was convinced that her remodeling contractor husband Ed had a calling. For eight years it was on Ed’s heart that he should be using his building skills for Christ, but he didn’t know how to get started. When Amy read about Millard Fuller in a recent Chronicle of Philanthropy article, she studied The Fuller Center Web site and believed she had found her answer. 

Around the same time, Amy and Ed came across a young mother with two daughters struggling to make it in an unfinished house – a fixer-upper her dad bought for the family of three just before he passed away from cancer. When Ed and Amy shared the story of The Fuller Center and offered to help organize volunteers to finish the house, the young mother was in disbelief.  The young woman contacted Fuller Center headquarters with a serious question, "Are Ed and Amy for real? I’ve been hurt before."

Amy and Ed are indeed real, just like the local leadership that runs each Fuller Center covenant partner. The idea of a "calling from God" is a powerful motivator, although we often wonder if the calling to make a career change or to volunteer with a ministry is truly being directed from God. 

Kirk Lyman-Barner, The Fuller Center’s director of covenant partner development, said that one of his professors at seminary once explained a calling. “A calling is not just affirmed by a church institution but by the community, and family and friends. How do they respond when you share that you believe you have a calling?”

To begin, Amy wrote a piece on the newly-created FCH Iowa Lakes blog called, “A Promise of New Day,”  in which she shared Ed’s calling, the story of the young mother and ways people could help by volunteering and supporting The Fuller Center for Housing Iowa Lakes. Amy started the note to her readers movingly:

Fall weather is coming on. Do you know where you’re going to live this winter?

Do you have appliances and utilities?

Is your roof sound and secure?

Do your windows keep out the elements?

If the answers to all these questions is yes, then I hope you will take a moment to thank God for your blessings because not everyone has the great shelter you do.

For more information about The Fuller Center for Housing Iowa Lakes and how you can become involved as a volunteer, committee person or board member, contact the Petersons or read the covenant partner’s blog:

Edward and Amy Peterson

PO Box 27 (210 Main St.)

Fostoria, IA 51340

712-441-5437

fullercenteriowalakes@gmail.com

http://fullercenteriowalakes.blogspot.com/