Workers build home, hope for Kentucky family in second annual ‘Extreme Build’
July 19, 2007
By Carla Wynn Davis
CBF Communications
ATLANTA – Church members and other workers are building hope for a family in rural McCreary County, Ky., where a new house is being constructed by volunteers within a week.
In the second annual “Extreme Build,” approximately 125 workers have convened July 15-21 to help the Garland family, which includes Richard and his six children. The family lives in a two-bedroom apartment.
“This is all my dad can afford with five kids,” said Courtney Garland, 14. “He’s doing a good job, but we need a bigger house.”
Kentucky Baptist Fellowship’s Mountain Hope rural poverty initiative has partnered with the McCreary County Community Housing Development Corporation to build the house.
“The build is just a small part of addressing poverty in Eastern Kentucky, specifically through improving the quality of housing in McCreary County one house at a time,” said Rhonda Blevins, Kentucky Baptist Fellowship’s associate coordinator for missions.
“Housing is one our most basic human needs, but more than that, when a child can be proud of his or her home, it increases self esteem and sets that child on a path toward a brighter future. That’s our ultimate goal: a brighter future for these kids and others in our focal counties.”
Mountain Hope also works in Owsley County and the community of Nada in Powell County.
Most Extreme Build participants are from McCreary County or areas in Kentucky. They are Fellowship Baptists, local residents or Habitat for Humanity volunteers. Some will work up to 12 hours each day in order to complete the house within a week. To speed along construction, workers used a pre-built kitchen, bathroom and laundry room provided by the Kentucky Highlands Investment Corporation.
“There’s a lot of teamwork going around,” said Sharon Davis, an Extreme Build partner and member of Broadway Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky. “Rain showers stop us here and there, but it hasn’t been a problem.”
Even with brief rain showers slowing work, the house is still scheduled for completion July 21.
Mountain Hope is part of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s rural poverty initiative, Together for Hope, which ministers in 20 of the poorest counties in the United States. For more on Mountain Hope, visit www.mountainhopeky.org. To become involved in Together for Hope, visit www.ruralpoverty.net.
CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.