Tag Archives: help

We All Need Help

04 May

Many years ago, when Jack was just a little boy, Hosanna Industries was having an autumn open house.  He was trying to bob for apples but just couldn’t get one.  Every time he’d try to bite an apple it would duck under the water and he couldn’t get a hold on it.  After several attempts Jack looked up and simply stated that he needed help.  A little guidance was given and Jack was successful in bobbing for an apple.

Two things happened in that moment.  One person asked for help.  Another was available to give it.  How many times and in how many ways has that happened over the years at Hosanna?

“I sleep with buckets in my bed every time it rains so that my feet don’t get wet.” 

“Don’t worry, we can repair your roof for you.”

“My furnace isn’t working and I can’t sleep because it is so cold.” 

“Don’t worry, we’ll replace it for you.”

“I don’t know how, but I’d like to help someone.” 

“Don’t worry, we’ll teach you everything you need to know to serve a household in need.”

“I’m overwhelmed by every day struggles and need to find someplace to recharge.”  

“Come out to a class or workshop at Hosanna Gibsonia.  It’ll make a big difference.”

“I can’t get this nail to go in.”

“Just hold your hammer like this and try again.”

“My husband left me.  I don’t know what to do.” 

“Come out.  Let’s see how we can help you.”

And sometimes people don’t even realize they were crying out for help until after their needs were met.

“My husband would never have known he had this ability (watercolor painting) if it weren’t for you.  This has changed his life.”

“I feel as though I’ve emerged from some deep dark abyss that I didn’t realize I had fallen into.  Thank you so much for restoring hope and joy to my life.”

People in need of help.  People responding.

You see, I don’t think it is enough to go about our daily lives just doing what needs to be done.  I think we are called to so much more.  It’s not supposed to be about alarm clocks, commutes, work, shuffling the kids from one activity to another, catching some dinner, paying the bills, and hitting the hay in preparation for another day.

For many people I believe that is what life becomes.  Perhaps that is why there is so much need for anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications.

But I don’t think that is what life is supposed to be.  “It is not good for man to be alone.  I will make a helper suitable for him.”  I think we are meant to work together.  To solve problems together.  To dream together.  And when we do, everyone gains.

So, thank you, whomever you are.  Thank you if you have cried out for help.  Thank you if you have donated or volunteered or prayed for us.  Thank you if you have needed help and thank you if you have provided it. 

You all have been a part of transforming lives.  

Those who serve, those who volunteer, those who come out to help, hopefully you have returned home transformed.  Hopefully your ears are more opened to hearing cries for help.  Hopefully you are inspired to continue serving others.  Hopefully you experienced the love of Christ and the joy of giving.  Hopefully we have made a difference.

For those who have cried out for help, we have done our best to respond to those cries.  Hopefully your lives have been transformed as you are once again warm, safe, and secure in your home.  Hopefully we have been able to show you the love of Christ and just how valuable you are.  Hopefully we have made a difference.

You all are so valuable.  As we hear about all the tragedies, loss, anger, pain and division in the world today, I want to thank all of you who have either given or received from Hosanna Industries.  Thank you for reaching out, for working together, for opening your heart and life to others, for allowing the love of Christ to be shared.  This is what life is really about.

And Jack, that little boy who had trouble bobbing for apples?  He worked at Hosanna Industries last year as one of our summer staff.  He answered many cries for help last year swinging a hammer, running a saw, operating a weedwacker, wielding a screwgun.  

Thank you, dear Hosanna friend, and thank you Jack for reminding us that it is good to ask for help when you need it and to provide help when you are able.

-Julie Wettach, Mission Worker

Our First Tiny House

12 January

Our first Tiny House is complete!

The 8’x16′ home is complete with a full bathroom, washer/dryer, refrigerator, kitchen sink, instant hot water heat, glass cooktop, a queen size loft, single bedroom & lots of unique storage.

The home is for sale & would make a great home, cabin, rental, or retreat.

We have dreams of eventually building communities of these to replace trailer parks, or to provide housing for the homeless, or to provide a home for someone who lost theirs in a natural disaster.

But for now, please contact us if you’d like more information on purchasing our first Tiny House!

Hammers Hearts and Hands: November, 2017

07 December

Just a few days ago, as the sun was beginning to fall in the western sky, I found myself racing against the clock to make some progress on an important outdoor project, attempting to complete this work before the onset of winter. With saw and hammer, I set my focus upon the task of completing some simple framing, but in the process I inadvertently nailed several boards in an improper location.

Despite all the years of accumulating knowledge and experience in this field and despite my intention of doing a good job, I had done something that I’m never proud of doing. I had made a mistake.

Believe me, I am more than qualified to make that statement. I’ve made innumerable mistakes over the years of my life, and my dossier of mistake-making is more extensive than I am happy to admit. I’ve made mistakes in judgement, logic, and perception. I’ve made errors in decision-making, listening, speaking, and doing. I seriously doubt that there’s even one aspect of my life into which mistake-making hasn’t insidiously entered.

When I was a young man, I probably would have taken a sledgehammer to the framing mistake, demolishing what I had to work with, and leaving no alternative but to start all over again. That’s a human option, but it’s expensive. I’m not young anymore. My hands didn’t reach for a sledgehammer, but instead they picked up a tool called a “cat’s paw”, designed to discretely retract an embedded nail without causing too much damage to the overall work. Carefully, I applied the physics of this tool to my framing error and in a few well-spent minutes I was able to undo the wrong I had done without being destructive.

2000 years ago, a little baby boy was born to an unmarried and bewildered couple in a town called Bethlehem of Judea, half-way around the world from the region we call home. His newly born body was swaddled in long strips of cloth and placed in a borrowed, crudely built manger as His family had no proper cradletoputintouse. Thirty-three years later His scourged and flesh-torn body,now dead,would be removed from a Roman cross of crucifixion, wrapped in long strips of cloth again, and placed in a borrowed grave.

Without God’s grace, the life of Jesus, from birth to death, would arguably be just another sad portrait of a life riddled with the results of mistakes that have always plagued the human race. With God’s grace, however, His life becomes the miracle of salvation and the emblem for all true human progress. Jesus is the instrument, the tool, of divine grace that God sent into the world to repair all the mistakes we make without making things worse. Jesus is the personification of God’s grace in this world. He is the living incarnation of God’s will, not to condemn but to correct, to build rather than demolish, to be constructive instead of destructive.

Our world is self-destructing under the sledgehammer swing of pride, hostility, hatred, terrorism, violence, senselessness, bigotry, judgmentalism, and meanness. We are hurting one another, hurting the human race, hurting God, and hurting the cause of the Christ whom God sent into the world to save. Our pride and arrogance have grown large and heavy like the head of a 20-pound sledge and we ignore the delicate utility of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, God’s “cat’s-paw” in the Divine Builder’s Toolbox.

Nearly 28 years ago, Hosanna Industries was born to be an instrument of grace in God’s world. The mission has never known a day since its beginning on which destructiveness could not have prevailed. But we were and are called by Christ to be constructive, to build rather than destroy, to help rather than to hurt, to heal rather than injure. We have been invited to share in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and what a year of grace this has been! Since last Christmas, the mission’s service log reports that we have been privileged to help 161 needy households, work with 1675 volunteers, and use all of the gifts generously given to build more than two million dollars worth of equity in this world. We have made blunders, errors, mistakes in various ways, but God’s grace has been sufficient in correcting the way without condemning the work. God’s grace always prevails if we allow it to work.

Very soon, the Holiday Season will be upon us once more. For a little while, the world will be full of the signs of Christmastime. Lights, decorations, trees, presents, parties, carols and candles will ornament our experience, but will we grasp the profound and transforming meaning of it all? Sledgehammers work, if demolition is what you are aiming to do. But must we behave with demolition in mind? Isn’t there a better alternative? Christmas means there is a better alternative and its name is Grace in the person of Jesus.

With this newsletter, you will find enclosed our traditional Christmas present to you, dear friend. It’s another Hosanna hand-made Christmas tree ornament, our 24th in a row, this one made by Amy out of the same kind of canning lid that the mission has used for many years in harvesting God’s produce from the garden and in processing thousands of jars of good food for hungry people. I hope you enjoy it as you include it in your Christmas decorations this year. We give this little gift to you with all the grace we have been given, reminding you as well as ourselves that Christmas is always a choice, because Christ is always the most important choice a person can ever make. This Christmas, choose Christ. Choose His ways of love and forgiveness, peace and reconciliation. Give Christ a chance to correct rather than condemn. You will be amazed at what the Master Carpenter can do if you let Him carefully do His work. Perhaps as you light a candle this Christmas Eve, please know from the bottom of Hosanna’s heart, how very grateful we are for you and for all that you do to help us carry on in our work. Please continue to pray for us, remembering the worth of God’s grace in this world, His grace made known to the world in and through your own precious life, and sing with your voice of faith together with God’s children everywhere:

Silent night, Holy night, Son of God, Love’s Pure Light!
Radiant beams from Thy Holy Face,With the dawn of redeeming Grace, Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth, Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth!

Love and grace to you with unending gratitude, dear Hosanna friend, this Season and always,

DDE

Read more in our 2017 November Newsletter.

TOP TEN things you can do TODAY (Giving Tuesday) to give back

24 November

Today is Giving Tuesday, and in the spirit of giving, we came up with a TOP TEN list of ways to give back through Hosanna Industries. These are simple things you can do right now.

 

 

  1. Say a prayer or two! Pray for the people crying out, “Hosanna, rescue me now, Lord!”
  2. Donate online or mail a check.
  3. Like us on Facebook, share our pages with your friends, or rate us on Facebook.
  4. Write a review about your experience with us on Network for Good, which will help us to receive more support.
  5. Register for our metal-working class to make a handmade Christmas gift.
  6. Sign up to deliver Christmas gifts to a household that we’ve helped this year.
  7. Start collecting spare change. Every penny, nickel, dime, quarter, dollar, etc. makes a difference!
  8. Sign up (at the bottom of our website) for our e-blast to stay in the loop about our work.
  9. Shop like you normally would at Amazon.com (or Amazon Prime) but use Smile.Amazon.com instead, & .5% of every purchase will benefit the mission, with no extra charge to you.
  10. While you’re out running errands, grab something extra. Here’s our wish list: 

Thanks for your support & Merry Christmas!

Hurricane Harvey Response

01 September

In response to the inquiries we have received about our involvement in Hurricane Harvey rebuilding:

Yes, we anticipate helping needy households rebuild in the Houston area in response to widespread property damage and loss due to Hurricane Harvey.  We are prayerfully considering future efforts to act, not as “first responders”, but as “primary charitable rebuilders” after the water has receded and initial recovery efforts are underway.

Hosanna Industries travels to areas of disaster to help with the mobilizing of large groups of volunteers to build and repair homes damaged by tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding, or other catastrophic events to bring hope and restoration to hurting individuals and communities.   We’ve worked after multiple disasters, including Hurricanes Andrew, Floyd and Katrina, among others.   In 2005, Hosanna assisted over 500 households with rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Ivan flooded parts of the Pittsburgh region.  We are currently in the midst of rebuilding Richwood, WV, after the 2016 “thousand year flood,” and have helped 32 households so far  this year, implementing the labor efforts of our staff of mission worker, skilled subcontractors, and more than 900 volunteers.

Because of our extensive and varied experience with disaster relief and rebuilding, we see disaster recovery  as a multiple phase process.  These phases, can be described  as follows:

  1. Immediate emergency intervention (rescue, emergency relocation and temporary shelter/food/medical care, etc)
  2. Initial cleanup and utility restoration following the cessation of the initial calamity
  3. Evaluation and strategic community-based consensus building
  4. Actual physical rebuilding/reconstruction/repair
  5. Continuing analysis, evaluation, and long-term recovery problem solving

Our current news media culture often depicts disaster and recovery as happening almost simultaneously or suggesting that this be so, and public expectations sometimes project the same views. In the actual field of disaster recovery, this is not the case, should not be expected to be the case, and in many ways simply cannot be the case tactically and logistically.

It will take some time for the first few phases to be complete, and some funds.  In reality, the most expensive phase is #4, and the immediate fundraising that happens after a natural disaster is often meant for  or used toward the first two phases only.  Unfortunately, our culture has a short attention span and when the time for actual  rebuilding begins, the culture and news media will have moved on to new topics, while Houston is left trying to rebuild, at costs initially estimated to be some $40 billion dollars.

 

Hosanna Industries is requesting a few things:

  1. Prayers for people affected by Hurricane Harvey
  2. Let us know if you were personally affected, or have any connections with agencies in the area that may need help with rebuilding efforts.  We are specifically looking to help under-insured or under-resourced homeowners.  (The Washington Post estimates that 80% of those affected do not have flood insurance.)
  3. Keep us in prayer as we explore the possibilities, come up with a plan, and begin fundraising, volunteer recruitment, and organizational  efforts.

About Hosanna Industries: Hosanna Industries was founded in 1990 as a faith-rooted, non-profit mission whose work involves a variety of charitable initiatives aimed at helping our needy neighbors.  By the grace of God and through the mechanical and aesthetic arts, mission workers at Hosanna Industries build and repair homes for needy households; teach and lead classes and workshops in art, nature and spirituality; and train young people in construction skills.  Since our founding in 1990 Hosanna Industries has provided around $52 million worth of charitable work to the community for around $15 million.  We depend on the generosity of others to complete our work.

 

Creative Support Spring 2017

16 February

We are so grateful for the creative ways that individuals & organizations support the mission of Hosanna Industries!  Contact Amanda if your business or organization would like to support us in a creative way, whether that be through a fundraiser, collection, special sale, etc., we would love to hear your ideas.

 

Shawn Marie Bacon participated in our Galentine’s Day Celebration at Hosanna Industries’ Gibsonia campus, with her business ViaOneHope.  For every purchase made from this link, they will donate 15% to Hosanna Industries.  Contact Shawn Marie if you have questions or would like to host a wine-tasting fundraiser for Hosanna.

 

 

Greg Emslie of Focal Point Business Coaching is hosting a time-management seminar on March 9th, & has offered to donate 10% of registration fees to Hosanna Industries.  In this fast-moving, 1/2 day workshop, you learn how to apply the most important personal management principles ever discovered to every area of your life.  Read more about the Eat That Frog seminar & register here.

 

 

Sigi & Lauren Loya at the Hormone Center have graciously given Hosanna Industries a vendor table to help us promote the mission & our programs at their Integrative Medicine Symposium on March 25th.  Lauren says that “I started to realize something  was wrong when I saw a patient  who was on 10 medications.  The first five dealt with  ailments while the second five  were for the side effects of the  first five. Despite the  medications, the patient didn’t  feel any better. This was the  beginning of my inquiry into  another way to practice  medicine.”  Read more about this event & register here.  (We do have a few free tickets, so please let us know if you’d like to be our guest for this educational morning.)