Scraping, Painting, and Building...Oh My!
This past week through the Motown Mission Experience in
Detroit, we had the opportunity to participate in a variety of urban renewal
projects. This included activities such as cleaning up abandoned lots, caulking
windows, scraping and painting houses, and building projects.
For the first two days I participated in an activity
scraping and painting a woman’s porch and railings. By the middle of the second
day I had become increasingly frustrated. No matter how much paint we scraped
off, there was still more loose paint. Other groups had been speaking the
previous night about how rewarding their work had been, and that they had
already made a difference with numerous projects. I began to feel unsatisfied
in the work that I was doing because I could not see any progress on the
project.
Right as this envy was beginning to happen, a second thought
came upon me. It is easy to do something for others when we know we are getting
something in return. Whether this is something more material, or merely
acclaim, getting something in return makes the work easier. However, that is
not why we are called to service. Service is not meant to be easy, and it
should not be motivated by outside desires, but by a genuine desire to help
someone. As I began to look at scraping the porch from that lens, everything
became clearer. Yes, it would be easier for me if I had been placed on a
simpler project that could be done quickly, but I am here for a reason. Even
though scraping the porch for hours may have originally seemed like a burden,
now it was an opportunity. Even though the task may be longer, this simple
action had the potential to brighten the homeowner’s day every time they saw
their newly painted porch.
The next day, a group of painters from Missouri went back
and finished the painting project. Not only did they do an amazing job
painting, but they went above and beyond and bought the homeowner some new silk
flowers for her pots on the porch. Their simple resolve to make the woman smile
greatly motivated me throughout the week.
During this time, I was participating in a porch project
down the street. The day before, a group had torn down the porch, and today we
were resolved to build a new one. Through some hard work measuring and cutting
boards, hammering nails, and addressing challenges as they arose, we finished
the project. Before, the porch had
been almost entirely rotted through. The woman who lived there could not walk
out on her porch without the possibility of falling through the floor.
Something that really stuck with me that one of the participants stated was, “
To us, we built a porch, but to her, we repaired her home.” Something as simple
as us building a porch, truly did have a potential to change someone’s life.
Now she has a place where she can socialize with her neighbors, wave at the
neighborhood children, or talk to her mailman. To me, a porch represents a
renewed sense of community, and the potential to draw communities closer
together.
Below is a photo of the porch I helped build in conjunction with the
Missouri Group from Jefferson City and Columbia. On the porch is the homeowner.