Written by Vicki Matusik, a Hands on Housing team leader from Oak Hill United Methodist Church. Oak Hill has completed repairs on many homes throughout their involvement with iACT, but this piece is a reflection on her team’s participation in our Raise the Roof Fall Housing Repair Event on October 25, 2014. Her team-as always-went above and beyond, completing many special projects for the homeowner, Ms. Johnson, and working both the weekend before and of the event. Members of the team also supported work at the Penry’s home and Ms. Lowe’s home during the event.

What to do with a beautiful fall morning.   In Austin, Texas there is no shortage of great outdoor opportunities – swim Barton Creek, hike a Hill Country trail, enjoy a breakfast taco at an outdoor café.  All great choices, but no.  This Saturday morning was reserved for something else, something grander – one stellar opportunity for which to be thankful.

Joined by 24 members of my personal family and colleagues at Oak Hill United Methodist Church, I was honored to participate in iACT’s Fall 2014 Hands on Housing event.  The tasks were many – replace rotten window frames, siding, and facia boards.  Caulk and prime the replacement wood.  Give this home a fresh, cheerful coat of new paint – tomato and apple – quite a statement.  Not such a stellar moment you might observe, but you would be mistaken.  The mechanics of repairing the home were only the surface activities taking place that day.  Look deeper and find the opportunities that made us all truly thankful.

The opportunity to see transformation underway – not just in the home which absolutely did, before our very eyes and through our hands and feet, move from a worn, tired structure to a breath of fresh air on the street.

Transformation yes, in the spirit and sparkle that we saw in the homeowner’s eyes – weary from the work of primary caregiver for her precious, and very active little granddaughter and for her elderly parents, increasingly in need of assistance.  As the painting concluded, the sparkle shown with the understanding that the repairs would restore their home to a safe, cheerful place where they could remain.

Transformation, perhaps most striking of all in the individuals who came thinking they were sacrificing a Saturday morning to service only to realize, one by one, that perhaps the greatest transformation that day was within each of us.  To feel the exhilaration of serving someone else, to have the opportunity to be the hands and feet of God in “love your neighbor as yourself.”

Now that’s something for which to be thankful.

Click here for a reflection posted by a member of the Austin Firepit Minyan and here for a reflection posted on Heimsath Architects news site.