Week 1 Davids and Goliaths

The first week of construction is complete. The theme was "surprises." We had spent the previous week selecting homes, formulating solutions, and signing contracts. I pulled building permits on all of the homes within Bluefield city limits. In week 1, we introduced the first wave of volunteers to their families, and to the projects that they would be doing.

Monday morning, I shared a devotional with all of the volunteers before breakfast. I shared a verse which was written on a Salvation Army poster on a wall in our building. It's from Samuel 1, and it goes something like "David, God's chosen one, picked up five stones from a nearby stream, and put them into his bag. And armed only with his shepherd's staff and sling, he started across the valley to fight."

I explained that sometimes it felt like I was one of those stones--that I was being hurled at a Goliath of a problem. But another way to look at it was that they (the volunteers) are the stones, and that we are David, hurling them at problems which seem like giants. Their Goliaths could be the difficult construction that we ask them to do, or they could be in the interactions that they have with their group, or with their family. Whatever form he comes in, you are sure to encounter at least one Goliath in an ASP volunteer week.

A few heads nodded, but I got the idea that my analogy didn't really catch.

One project that I was managing that week had looked to be a challenging one. The roof was a 10/12 pitch [See diagram below]. It appeared that a few of the rafters were partially rotted, and that we would need to reinforce them by "sistering." Nothing we can't work with, though.


On Monday morning, this all changed when the volunteers removed a piece of plaster, and three wall studs came off with it. By lunch time, this phenomenon had occurred several times, and the group's leader, who was a contractor in real life was all but convinced that we would have to pull off the house. It's not that he didn't want to pull off the house, but he knew that since we had removed the plaster, and incidentally some of the studs, we couldn't simply stop the work.

Around mid-day, Todd and I showed up to check on the construction, and found the work crew and house in the above-described situation. I stumbled over methods for temporary stabilization, kickers, walls, braces, posts, etc. Todd, my first-year staffer who doesn't have any experience in home construction, but who is a first-year grad student in architecture came up with an excellent solution, which was eventually implemented. We would put a 6x6 post on the corner of the house, and frame out new walls, so that we wouldn't have to remove any old walls and risk collapse. This was to be supported with a large footer underground, which would also directly support some rotted floor joists.

This was a great idea, but the group was still very uneasy about doing anything with the house in such an unstable state. Luckily, our construction consultant was showing up Tuesday, so we decided to have him spend all day at the site. I was also to join the crew for most of the day.

Tuesday's work was very productive. We installed temporary walls, and developed a plan for installing the 6x6 post, and eventually for reinforcing the entire system without removing anything.

By Thursday, the post was in, and everything was solid. Friday was spent "suring" everything up, and developing a plan for the next week's volunteers. This week, there are two crews at the house. One is re-decking and re-shingling the first quadrant, and the other is duplicating the previous week's work, but on another corner of the house. At this rate, it looks like we may be able to complete the entire roof, which would certainly be an incredible feat for teams of unskilled volunteers in seven weeks (not counting time for fellowship and family interaction and love).

On Monday, the group had met its Goliath. But Tuesday, it was overcome. It was really an incredible experience for all involved. I at least learned that it takes all types of people to solve the mixed up mangled and troubling problems of the world (and of Bluefield). I certainly couldn't have done that alone, and the volunteer group couldn't have done it without the encouragement and expertise of our construction consultant. These things won't fix themselves, and most of them can't be fixed alone.