A Good Saturday

My name is Mike Binder, and I’m a Renew Project Leader for the North Dayton community group. About a month ago, my brother David asked all of the community groups to pool a small amount of money to build a wheelchair ramp for a man and his wife in Middletown.  It turned out that two guys in our community group just happened to have an extra wheelchair ramp on the house they’d just moved that they were willing to  donate to this couple.  

While modifying/assembling a wheelchair ramp is no small task, we didn’t need 7 sets of hands to do it, so we found other ways for the rest of our group to help.  In the end, we wound up edging  the sidewalks, planting some fresh flowers in a bed next to the house, and laying down concrete pavers at the end of the ramp so that Rick’s wife can travel safely from the ramp to the driveway without trudging through a pit of mud and shingles that had accumulated at the foot of the old ramp.  I think I can speak for the group and say that we were all quite pleased with the final product (although there are still plans to go pressure wash/paint the porch, ramp, and pavers, to give it that “finished” touch).  Rick’s wife was taken aback when she saw not just a new ramp, but also freshly planted flowers.  One of the ladies from our community group, Kourtnie smiled and said, “Every lady needs some pretty flowers for springtime!”  She just beamed.

Working with the Wilsons all day on Saturday was such a blessing to all of us, in that we all felt a connection to them by the time we left.  His wife came out to check our progress about every hour or so, and was quite pleasant each time.  The neighbors even came by toward the end, just to watch us work.  I got a chance to chat with a few of them at the end of the day, and a guy named Tim said that he used to live in the adjoining place to Rick’s (he has since moved around the corner).  He said, “I’m just a neighbor, and I’d like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for what ya’ll are doin’ for Rick.  It really means a lot.”  He was one of the ones who helped Rick construct the original ramp.  Darrel was another one of Rick’s neighbors, and he showed up about an hour before we left.  For about the first 15 minutes, he just stood there in silence munching on Milk-Duds and watching.  We all said “Hi”, and he just nodded and kept watching.  After we had packed up, Darrel came over to pray with us before we left. 

  Rick made us enough homemade Sloppy-Joes to feed about 200 people, along with potato chips and 2 cases of Pepsi.  That was probably the best tasting service project I’ve ever done.  I loved that what little he had to offer us, he offered with excellence.  This is a principal I would like to see played out in my life more frequently.

Our community group was thankful for the opportunity to serve, and we  look forward to seeing Rick and his wife again soon!

The Finished Project!