By Julia Oller | Echo
Get ready to raise the roof, or at least a few walls.
Today and tomorrow, Carpenter's Hands is partnering with CrossRoads Missions to erect the frame of a house for a family in need. Volunteers will construct the walls in the parking lot behind Olson and then immediately ship the structure to the house's future location in southern Indianapolis.
Carpenter's Hands is a branch of Taylor World Outreach (TWO) that completes manual labor projects in order to serve the local community. In the past they have repainted the Red Barn facility, cleaned local churches and built a bridge for Victory Acres farm.
Brady Schaar, the graduate assistant overseeing the ministry, helped with Taylor's last house build in 2007 as a high school student visiting for Youth Conference. Now he's in charge of Carpenter's Hands and values the creativity and sense of accomplishment that comes from making something out of nothing.
"When you have some kind of repair project, you're fixing something that's already there," Schaar said. "In this case, we're actually creating something for a family in need."
While on a TWO retreat last fall, Carpenter's Hands co-directors sophomore David Neel and junior Clayton Orender schemed up the crazy idea of building a home during the next school year.
"I was thinking, 'I don't know how to build a house. I can't do that,'" Orender said.
Halfway through the semester, the two discovered that their goal was possible with the help of CrossRoads Missions.
"It ended up being something God just laid in our laps," Orender said.
The bulk of the work will be on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Carpenter's Hands is looking for approximately 100 students to help construct the walls. Schaar is also looking for team leaders ages 21 and over who will be responsible for small groups of 5-6 students during the build.
Seeing the evolution from uncut logs to a completed frame in a matter of hours is a change from the weeks-long projects and mental strain students undergo.
"Manual labor is something you can feel with your senses," Schaar said.
But the build is about more than just work.
Schaar wants students to gain something more from the experience than blisters. He hopes that after the project is finished, students can reflect on what they took away from the outreach. Schaar calls the concept "service learning," defining it as outreach that runs deeper than community service to include intellectual engagement.
Orender hopes that the students realize they can be servants with their hands, even if they're just hammering nails.
"We're trying to give (volunteers) the catalyst to do something bigger than what they could do on their own," Orender said.
No prior construction experience is necessary to participate. Those interested should email Neel and Orender at carpenters@taylor.edu before Saturday so they can be added to a team.
