Willie’s House

A couple of weekends ago, my 242 small group did a service project as part of a larger church-wide effort called 242 Impact (our small groups are called 242 Groups re: Acts 2:42). The idea behind 242 Impact is that the church will fund $1000 for each small group to serve those in need in our community. Each small group can use the money as they see fit. They can spread it around for different projects, or use it in one place. They can also choose whom they would like to serve and the church provided a list of local organizations that could help guide the groups to where they might be needed. The list had organizations that helped children, the homeless, and even exotic dancers trying to make a new start (I was told in no uncertain terms that my heart was to bleed elsewhere, lest it really bleed), but there were no organizations dealing with the elderly listed. My wife has an especially big heart for the elderly, so she and CP Sterns got in touch with the folks at Services for the Elderly, who then gave us Willie’s name.

Willie’s house, located in South Austin, was built in 1937 and is just over 500 sq. ft.. The house is dilapidated. Much of the wood is rotting, it was missing windows, the doors were barely intact, and it needed paint. I was there half the day before I realized that the front door was on upside-down, so that the window was at the bottom. That wasn’t the only thing that was backwards – other residents of the house included a mean Chihuahua and a gentle Pit Bull. Reports from those who ventured inside were disheartening. The house was pest infested and that doesn’t include the opossum being held in a cage. Habitat for Humanity offered to raze the house and build a new one, but for reasons which aren’t entirely clear, Willie refused. So be it. We decided to see what we could do for Willie and his home. With the money we had, we felt like we could install three windows, replace one of the doors, install another small air conditioner, and repaint the house. All of our efforts would be concentrated on the exterior. We would also clean-up the yard and haul away as much junk as we could.

Now, this is the part where I’m supposed to talk about how blessed and joyful we all felt at selflessly serving Willie. It’s true that joy and blessings come from being obedient to the Father. I believe that everyone there that day felt blessed and we each took away something from the experience. But, like so many other things we find in our lives and in our spiritual walks, it was messy. Throughout the day, I think each of us had to deal with our biases. I know we like to think that we don’t have them, but we do. For myself, I found that I was bothered by the fact that Willie is able-bodied enough to walk around the neighborhood and pick-up aluminum cans for money, but he can’t be bothered to pick-up trash out of his own yard. The yard was covered in trash and as I would pull things out of the dirt, I could see that there was more garbage buried underneath. The whole muddy yard was like a La Brea Tar Pit, except it was full of garbage instead of fossils. I found pull tabs from soda cans. Pull tabs haven’t been made in 25 years!

I know other people in our group were upset by the fact that Willie never even bothered to come outside to see what we were doing, until the very end of the day. Maybe he didn’t feel good. Maybe there was a pride thing going on. I don’t know, but some people in my group had to work it out.

Some people were bothered that Willie was keeping a baby opossum to eat. I understand that culture difference pretty well, but others had a difficult time with it.

Willie has a renter who alternately introduced herself as Ann or sometimes Virginia. She seemed very sweet and appreciative and at one point she did ask if she could help us. We insisted that she just enjoy her day. At the end of the day, she hugged my wife a couple of times to show her sincere appreciation for what we had done. But some people in our group may have been bothered by the fact that Ann was drunk from the time we got there at 8 o’clock in the morning. We all had things to work out with God.

The Bible doesn’t say to help those who help themselves, nor does it say to help only those who are appreciative, or even only those who are sober. Where would I be if those conditions were there? There have been times in my life when I was helpless, unappreciative, and drunk. God helped me anyway.

When we first pulled-up to Willie’s house, Ann came to meet us at the door. Nobody had probably ever helped her like this. All she knew was that we were from a church. So there she was at 8 o’clock on a blazing hot and muggy morning, so drunk that nobody could ever really understand anything that she said all day, but she had put on a black dress and heels to meet us at the door. She wanted to look as nice for us as she could. There was something innocent and child-like in her awkward effort. It melted my heart for her and it reminded me of how God wants us to be child-like with him.

Here is a video of what we did:

The video doesn’t reflect all of what I have written here. I put the video together in the hopes that they would play it in church as a way to encourage the other small groups. I just wanted to show what could be done in one afternoon, with $1000, and a small group of people trying to be obedient. It was messy, but it made a difference. If nothing else, it made a difference to me. I hope it made a difference to Ann and Willie. I know that in different ways, we were all blessed that day.