Jim Chou

On a bright Saturday morning, a gentle but brisk fall breeze blew as seven of us from Cross Bridge’s GPS fellowship group and one young adult member of Cross Bridge gradually converged on a half-built multi-family condo construction site in Malden, Massachusetts. We were there for Habitat for Humanity’s “build day,” where we would work alongside other volunteers, Habitat employees, and future residents to build a home. Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit organization whose mission is to help those in need get safe and affordable housing. Habitat for Humanity was founded in 1973 based on the concept of “partnership housing” whereby those in need of housing work side by side with volunteers to build decent and affordable homes, and then pay for those homes with no interest loans. Funds from their payments along with donations then fund further new construction. Habitat for Humanity now builds homes in 70 countries, and 50 states and has afforded 46 million people the safety and stability of an affordable home. Habitat’s mission is just as important today as it was when it was founded. Here in the US in 2021, over 1 in 6 pay over half of their income on housing. With the dramatic inflation and increase in housing costs of the last several years that figure has likely gotten worse.

We spent almost a full day from 8:30 to 3:30 at the site and were blessed in many ways. We enjoyed learning practical building skills like hammering, nail pulling, power drilling, and using a power saw, and an industrial stapler! We were blessed to be able to use these newly acquired skills to help a few of our neighbors who would otherwise face hardship by performing various construction tasks to help complete the condo project. We enjoyed developing relationships – both existing ones like with our fellowship members and people we were less familiar with, such as Simon, a single from Cross Bridge, our Habitat staff leaders, as well as volunteers from Northeastern University. One of our members, Ping Lei, was touched when the future owner of one of the units, who was working with us, told him how appreciative he was of our help in building a home for him. In a time where much darkness abounds, we were all blessed to be able to express God’s love in building up and loving our neighbors rather than taking and destroying and to see the goodness of God in one another. All of us are eager to participate again in this and other activities where we can share God’s love in a practical way and get to know and love one another more.

Jim Chou is a member of the GPS Fellowship, CrossBridge.

Edited by Lance Pan