A mission trip to help rebuild lives in New Orleans offered the first stepping stone to building a home for someone desperately in need right here in Oklahoma.

“Last Spring Break, a large group of our youth and adults went on a mission trip to help clean up the district where the first levees broke during the hurricane in New Orleans,” said First United Methodist Church Youth Director Robin Woodley. “The area was poverty-stricken to begin with, and it still is, but it was hit so hard.”

While working with Crossroads Missions in New Orleans, the group stayed in a school gym in the area, where the scars of the storm were still plainly evident.

“We could see the marks at the tops of the gym walls where the water had been,” Woodley recalled. “We were sleeping in an area that had once been under more than 10 feet of water.

“We made friends with some of the people in the neighborhoods there. They told some absolutely heart-wrenching stories. It was an eye-opening experience, especially for our kids.”

Woodley said while working alongside members of Crossroads Missions, she began speaking with one of the men from the group about how she wished they could do more than clean up — maybe build something permanent, tangible, for the people who remained.

“That led us to a discussion of Habitat for Humanity, a partnership organization with Help Build for Hope,” Woodley explained. “Help Build for Hope comes to you.

“Habitat for Humanity, in conjunction with Help Build for Hope, is a national, non-denominational mission organization,” she said. “They facilitate groups connecting with other groups to merge specialties.”

When working on Habitat for Humanity projects, volunteers go to the city or town where the building site is and build for a day or a week, or however long they decide to work, Woodley said.

“On Help Build Hope projects, they bring the materials to you, and the people in your congregation or civic group, whoever has chosen the project, build the walls from scratch,” Woodley continued. “The members raise the walls. Then there’s a prayer to bless the house, the group disassembles it and it is trucked to the receiver site.”

The First United Methodist Church, formerly Grand Avenue Methodist, will receive stacks of lumber it purchased for a future new church building near the Mike Deak walking track. The lumber will arrive at the lot on Nov. 6 from Lowe’s in McAlester. Building will be done on Nov. 7.

“It will be stacks and stacks of lumber and a whole lot of nails when it gets here,” Woodley said. “The Methodist Men’s Group will cut all the lumber to fit, and number it. Then members will come and put it together, raise it up, see what it will look like, and ship it out.”

The receiver sites are chosen ahead of time, in areas with a need. This one will be headed to Stroud, where the foundation will have been poured and the plumbing will already be in place.

“The materials are coming from Lowe’s,” Woodley said. “Chris Beatty, the new operations manager, and Lowe’s have really embraced this project. We’re receiving everything pretty much at cost, and they have really made an impact.

“They’re also sending 10 employees out to help build that day. It really is a blessing.”

Woodley has been scouting suitable places for a Habitat for Humanity project in the McAlester area, but has yet to come up with anything that qualifies just yet. In the meantime, she and the congregation continues rolling up itssleeves and work for common goals.

“We’ve been holding fundraisers for the last eight months, we’re planning a lasagna lunch this Sunday after church, and we’ve sold sandwiches, we sell and deliver poinsettias during the holidays, and the kids work pretty much continuously raising funds,” she said. “We were already raising the funds for this project before we had even decided what we would do. We’ve found that when people see that you’re doing it for a church, and you’re doing it for others, they dig a little deeper.”

She added that while the project was instigated through the youth group and the congregation, volunteers do not have to be from First United Methodist.

“We welcome anyone who wants to lend a hand,” she said. “Anyone from other churches, civic groups, or just individuals driving by that want to drop by for a few minutes or a few hours — we’d love to have them.

“Anyone who wants to help and can drive a straight nail,” she said.

Woodley said the anticipation is building among the members of the congregation. Everyone’s ready to lend a hand to a project that will change lives, even if they never meet the recipients.

“We chose to focus on something for someone else first,” she said of the fact that the Help Build Hope home will be assembled in the lot purchased with the intent of someday soon building a new church building. “We can’t wait to see the lumber go up. We’re going to build something for someone we’ll never meet.

“That’s a substantial thing. We’ve been telling these kids, ‘you’re giving someone a home.’ It’s the largest project we’ve done.

“You hope, you pray over it, and together, you see the impact.”