REBUILDING LIVES: Abilene church renovates home, touches family

Posted: 6/22/07

REBUILDING LIVES:
Abilene church renovates home, touches family

By George Henson

Staff Writer

ABILENE—A home renovation cannot come close to repairing the damage done in a young boy’s life, but it has allowed his family to see the love of Christ through the kindness of members of Pioneer Drive Baptist Church in Abilene.

Last summer, a 12-year-old boy—small for his age—was challenged to fight by a much bigger boy late at night in the church’s parking lot. Other children who were present report the younger boy refused and turned away to leave. Reports say the larger boy spun him around and hit him one time in the chest.

That blow stopped the small boy’s heart. He had no vital signs when paramedics arrived minutes later, and he lost all vital signs twice more before reaching the hospital. He remained in a coma for months. He has awakened from that coma but still lacks all motor skills.

Paul Lenker and some other men from Pioneer Drive Baptist decided to build a wheelchair ramp for the boy’s grandparents, who provide care for him and his four younger siblings. But after seeing the family’s home, a bigger project began to develop.

“We could have built a ramp, but the house would have fallen down behind it,” Lenker said. “If they had moved out and someone had tried to move in, it would have been condemned by the city. There’s no way they would ever have gotten the utilities turned on.”

The house essentially was stripped away and totally rebuilt. Not one inch of wiring in the house remains from prior to the remodeling project. Every inch of the plumbing and every piece of sheetrock was removed and replaced. Every kitchen cabinet and all the appliances are new. The roof was replaced. From top to bottom, volunteers built a new house.

While the crew primarily stuck to the house’s former footprint, the dirt-floored garage was transformed into a bedroom, two bathrooms were added and a porch was transformed into a laundry room. About 400 square feet were added to the original size of the house, in addition to the parts of the house that were made into living space, like the garage and porch.

“It’s going to be the showcase for the neighborhood,” Lenker said.

The work began after permits were secured from the city in October, and the work continued through the spring.

More than 40 individuals, many—but not all—from Pioneer Drive, worked on the house. More than 30 Abilene-area companies also provided materials and crews for the effort. People were just drawn to the project, Lenker said.

“There were eight or nine guys who spent three to four days a week at the house for months,” he said.

A wheelchair-accessible van also was provided to the family by a local non-profit organization.

Lenker, who headed the effort, said it was a work of many people from several churches and some people with no church affiliation. Its scope was so great, only God could have orchestrated it, he stressed.

“It’s about a $60,000 house, and we did it for about $20,000,” he said.

The family lived in one of the church’s mission homes during the six months of reconstruction.

The effort had a far larger impact than just giving a family a new place to call home. The boy’s younger twin sisters had been attending one of Pioneer Drive’s mission points, Shining Star Fellowship, but the rest of the family had little if any connection to the church.

While they were pouring themselves into the building of the home, church members also began pouring themselves into the lives of the people who would live there. Molly Lenker and Emily Meador especially were diligent in befriending the family, Minister of Missions Randy Perkins said.

The grandfather, who suffered from alcoholism and had several skirmishes with the law, quit drinking and recently was baptized at Pioneer Drive Baptist Church.

The morning of his baptism, a couple of women also were baptized—one of whom credited the man with giving her the courage to come forward.

“That man’s why I’m here,” she told Lenker. “I’d been putting this off and putting this off, but when that man stepped into the aisle, I knew it was time.”

While this is probably Pioneer Drive’s longest continuing project, Perkins said the church seeks continually to be on mission, and it also seeks to work with Christian churches of multiple denominations on mission efforts.

Recently the church combined with other churches of various denominations for a “We Are the Sermon” project involving more than 300 people who repaired 22 homes across the city. Sheds were torn down, windows replaced, homes painted.

“We’re not involved in a works-based faith, but our theology demands an expression of our faith, and those outward expressions of our faith transform our faith,” said James Stone, associate minister of missions at Pioneer Drive Baptist Church.

“Our expression of who Christ is in us is expressed by the things we do and how we serve, and who Christ is in us is influenced by what we do and how we serve,” he continued.

The church also operates a food pantry staffed by the church’s senior adults and has a once-a-year holiday grocery store. At the grocery store, families get about $200 in food for $11, including a ham and turkey, Perkins said.

“And for some who $11 is too much, we don’t ask them for anything,” he added.

People who visit the store are referred by neighboring schools. About 60 percent of the families choose to leave more than the amount required as a gesture of thanks, Perkins noted.

Pioneer Drive intentionally offers multiple ministries that can involve every person who wishes to serve Christ, he said. Teams greet people in parking lots, minister in five different nursing homes, and provide educational meetings such as home safety tips for senior adults.

The church also runs a number of mission camps each summer for youth. Some are in Abilene, and others are at other locations where mission work is needed. Perkins said the camps hope to engender at an early age the desire to help others in Christ’s name.

It is not only Baptist churches who send their young people. One week is set aside for youth from the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), as well as Catholics, Methodists, Lutherans and others.

“At these camps we’re not just serving, but teaching why we serve,” Perkins said.

He has no problem with working with Christians of other denominations to serve others. “I mean, can’t we do some of this together? It is kingdom work we’re talking about,” he said.

Pioneer Drive doesn’t confine itself to Abilene but seeks to minister in many geographically diverse points.

“The idea is, ‘Let’s be the hands and feet of Jesus every chance we get, not just in our community, but also in our state, country and around the world,’” Perkins said.