Dedication Day
brings tears of joy

By David Westerfield
Director of Communications
Shreveport-Bossier Community Renewal

Dedication Day!

Did our team really just build a house in less than five days? Yes - we did! And we even had the lights on and the ceiling fan spinning when we dedicated Yvonne Staples' new two-bedroom house in Allendale this afternoon. Monday morning we started with a concrete slab and Friday afternoon we turned over the keys.

"I am big-time happy," Yvonne said in her circle of new friends. "If it had not been for you, I could have never had my own house. There's no way I could have done it. Thank you for what you have done. I love it!"

Fuller Center founder Millard Fuller stopped by each of the nine houses built this week for photos and words of inspiration. When he handed Yvonne a Bible signed by every member of our team,  he said, "The concrete is the foundation for your house, but this is the foundation for your home."

That's about the time Yvonne let the tears start flowing - there was no holding them back. She was also given a beautiful quilt, dishes and other items. Three cheers to our house captains - Notre Dame alumni Bob Hyneckeal and Tom Campbell. They showed tremendous leadership and great patience with volunteers like me, who often had to be taught how to do something before we could do it. Certainly one of the many highlights of the week for me was the camaraderie that developed on our team. I now have new friends from Oregon to Florida, from the Amish country of Indiana to the mission fields of Romania.

Work on the houses continued before and after the dedications. Some have more work yet to be completed than others. This is Shreveport's time to step up and finish a tremendous work that was started by a tremendous group of people. They include three people from Minnesota who worked all night long Thursday night to finish the drywall in one house!

The five houses that received renovations this week were also dedicated Friday. I had to go to the one for Rosie Chaffold, our dear Community Renewal friend. As always, she brightened the space around her - even with the sun blazing down upon us.

"Oh happy day!" she said. "If I had 10,000 hearts, I could never say thank you enough. You have answered a prayer that I prayed for 30 years. I asked God for a miracle because I knew God had something better planned for Allendale. Shreveport-Bossier Community Renewal came first and gave us respect. And we are on the rise now with two great teams working together.

"My house was in such bad shape I wouldn't let people on the front porch because of the holes. Now I have a beautiful house and you have inspired me to do more than I have before."

Oh happy day indeed, Miss Rosie. Happy day indeed!