Students spend Christmas break in Marion

by Laura Hyer '11, Student Coordinator of Restoration

For the first week of Christmas Break, 28 Judson girls gave their time to serve the needs surrounding us in the city of Marion. The original plan was to rebuild houses that have fallen apart. We called our project Restoration because as we worked to restore the houses, we hoped to help bring God’s restoration to the lives of the families as well.

The Lord eventually led us into the direction of working with the Self-Help housing project to build two new houses. This program offers an opportunity for families to own a new home for the first time. With the generous donations from churches and other supporters we were able to purchase the tools we needed, so that we could completely insulate the two houses, drywall one entire house, and paint the outside of two houses.  We were very blessed to have the opportunity to see one of the families come to their house after we had hung most of the drywall.  We got to see the kids’ faces when they saw their rooms for the first time.

Each day we ate breakfast together, packed our sack lunches, and had a time of devotions and prayer before departing to our work sites. Every night after a long day of work and a tasty homemade meal we met together for a time of worship, devotionals, and testimonies. This was really the heartbeat of the whole week of Restoration. Throughout the week we strived to learn what God’s Word has to teach us about being a servant to others and to God. We learned throughout the day how as a body of Christ, we can work together to do something great for the Kingdom of God, that otherwise we could not do as individuals.