Life Basics, Extreme Home Makeover, and An Amazing "Did That Really Happen?" Story
Every watch Extreme Home Makeover? (I love the part where Ty yells at people through the megaphone. Not too many jokes stay that fresh and hilarious after years and years and years and years. Put the megaphone away,Ty. Seriously.)
One of the ministries at the Community Center, Life Basics, culminates every few months with an Extreme Home Makeover.
The Life Basics course is offered at the Community Center and covers seven essentials:
LIFE BASICS INTRODUCTION: Choices/Consequences, The Gifts (outlined below), Setting Realistic Goals, and Facilitating Positive Change
THE GIFT OF HOME: Household routine, Clutter/Organization, Cleaning Skills, and Laundry Skills
MY LIFE IS A GIFT FROM GOD: Managing Time, Punctuality, Staying Healthy, 5 Big Health Issues
THE GIFT OF FAMILY; Family Meetings, Nurturing, Delegation, Conflict Resolution, and Setting Boundaries
THE GIFT OF MONEY: Good financial habits, Benefits of Budgeting, 5 Steps to Budgeting, Getting Out of Debt, and Personal Budget Worksheet Development
THE GIFT OF FOOD: Food pyramid, Infant Nutrition, Meal Planning, and Smart Grocery Shopping
LIFE PURPOSE - GOD'S PURPOSE FOR ME: Responding and Living in God's Grace, My SHAPE, and Community Involvement.
Upon graduation, a diploma is provided as a certificate of completion and an Extreme Home Makeover is the graduation gift. Pretty sweet, eh?
So, a team of people storms the apartment the graduate lives in at Monroe Circle and the transformation begins.
Pam Beemer, the amazing woman of God who leads this ministry, summarizes the makeover as including the following:
- top to bottom cleaning
- organizing all the closets and cabinets
- fixing existing furniture
- bringing in NEW furniture
- new bedding, new towels
- hanging pictures, shelves, and mirrors
- installing light fixtures
- basic maintenance of anything that's broken
- home decoration
- and....you get the idea!
What a metaphor for what God is doing in the lives of those in Life Basic's course.
Pam (Did I mentioned that Pam rocks?) and the Life Basic's team are on the frontline, bringing "up there" down here one family, one apartment at a time in Monroe Circle.
This week at the cafe during food pantry hours, two different Monroe Circle residents asked, "My friend is in Life Basics. They said it's amazing. Where do I sign up? I got to get in that."
That's community ownership. You don't get a higher compliment than word of mouth. That's how the kingdom spreads: one life to another, a bottom up, grassroots, viral change.
Let me tell you a quick story behind one of the Makeovers that happened during an earlier version of the same program we ran at Lathrop Homes in Chicago.
During one of the makeovers, our team found that the little girl in that apartment was sleeping on a roach-infested mattress. According to one of the team members, there was more roach than mattress. Her mattress "crunched" when you sat on it. Our team had brought tons of supplies, but didn’t have a new mattress. The team's funds were tapped out at that point.
The team huddled that evening and prayed for God to provide a mattress. The next morning, while taking a short cut down an alley on the way to the corner store to get a coffee, they couldn't believe their eyes. Guess what they saw propped up against a dumpster, waiting to be thrown out? A brand new child's mattress and bedding set...still wrapped in the original packaging. The team checked around to make sure they weren't stealing somebody's mattress. Jesus isn't down with with the whole stealing thing.
Unbelievably, they were able to carry it back to the little girl and announce, “Hey Jesus sent this for you.” The little girls eyes were as wide as saucers when she heard the story. I wonder how many nights she thinks of that story when she goes to sleep?
The next makeover is June 28th and there is still space on the team for a few more people. We've got another one in July too! If you're interested in getting involved, let me know.
And I thought the Natatorium story was cool. You guys continue to amaze me. I'm thinking my family could benefit from a Life Basics course. To bad I'm too many miles away (lol). Keep up the great work.
Posted by: DisneyCyndi | June 20, 2008 at 01:09 AM
That's where i'm headed in 30 min. To teach some more, it's a lot of fun and there's always interesting conversation. We could use Ty's megaphone......
Posted by: Leslie Miller | June 21, 2008 at 07:56 AM
I'm in for July if you tell me when & where I'll be there.
Posted by: Renee Crabtree | June 26, 2008 at 01:43 PM