changed our world at Pullen Avenue!

From July 14 to 18, our group home underwent a fantastic face lift when 12 members of World Changers ® came from Ohio, Missouri and Illinois, to re-vamp ramps, paint our entire interior, change faucets and hardware, level the back deck, install fencing, stain our gables, trim trees and generally lift our spirits in many, many ways. We had eight youth and four adults with us all week.

World Changers ® is a Southern Baptist-based Christian mission program. Their mission states: World Changers seeks to provide Christian youth and adults with opportunities to meet the physical and spiritual needs of others through practical learning experiences that teach servanthood and personal commitment to missions.

We heard about this wonderful opportunity through the Housing Department at the City of Ottawa and immediately applied to become one of the projects that would be taken on in July. In May, Brian Cecil, the Construction Coordinator,  came from Missouri, along with Walter Mudryk, of the Sequioa Community Church in Ottawa, to visit our home for a pre-project inspection. We were extremely pleased to learn that they could take on much of our wish list! PCIL/CPVA would become one of the 90 projects in 82 cities welcoming 25,000 students across North America this summer.

We  supply the materials and they would do the rest.  I later learned that the connection to the City of Ottawa came through Ottawa’s Police Chief, Vern White, himself a member of the Sequoia Community Church!
Our group home receives no funding for maintenance of the physical structure outside of the accommodation fees paid by the residents. That means that construction projects, with their high labour costs, are generally done on a strictly as needed basis. Just as an example, the cost to repair damage from a hidden shower leak in our much repaired bathroom topped $9,800.00 in June.

On July 13, we met our crew for the first time in advance of the first work day on the 14th. What a great group of people! Some had travelled in excess of 20 hours to get to Ottawa with their various groups which were then ‘mixed up’ with other groups so participants could get to know as many people as possible. One of our youth members, Joelie, was here on her fifth project, including past ones in various states and Mexico.

On July 14 they arrived at 7:30 ready to work, flying the Senators flag I had given them the day before.  Also arriving on Monday morning were  and Donna and Mike Boisvert, of the Sequoia Community Church. They were providing additional support and consultation to the groups in Ottawa. That meant things like delivering the extension ladders we needed, running to Home Depot with their pick-up for lumber and fence panels and generally consulting before heading off to their next project.
Work kicked off swiftly and kept up at a hectic pace for the next 2and a half days.  Our tree trimmer came on Tuesday morning and enchanted us with his aerial display. He was Dan Kelly, Ottawa Firefighter (and member of their rope rescue squad), and Sequoia Community Church member. Two of the adult members, Darin and Tim, spent virtually all of the first two days hunched under our deck attaching sister boards to main joists to level things up. Most everyone else was attached to some form of painting implement – if anyone has ever painted an entire house in four and a half days, you will have some idea of what intense work it is. Two of our residents, Faith and Frank picked up paint brushes and contributed considerable sweat equity.

The group got a much needed break on Wednesday afternoon with sightseeing activities.  Our crew was back on site bright and early Thursday morning and we were off to the races again. On Thursday afternoon, Mike and Donna were back and work began on the ramp. It had badly deteriorated over years of use and rough Ottawa winters that require us to use salt to keep it passable. We had a thousand pounds of concrete to pour! By Friday at lunch, it was done – just in time to stop before the rains began to come down.  Actually, ALL the work was done by Friday at lunch and we had planned to celebrate with a BBQ that became an indoor picnic due to rain. We were also celebrating a long-serving part time staff, Amanda Fisher, who was leaving us to take a full-time job. But the icing on the cake came when David McGuinty, MP, Ottawa South, was able to attend and see first-hand what had been accomplished. To say that those attending the picnic were amazed would be a bit of an understatement.

Frank, Faith and I attended the closing celebrations with all the World Changers on Friday evening. What an uplifting and joyous celebration it was. The energy was so contagious, it was like electricity! 200 people came to Ottawa this year and they are planning for 400 for next year!
PCIL/CPVA is honoured to have been the recipient of this mission project. Thank you to Brian Cecil, Construction Coordinator, Darin Peterson, Crew Chief,  Pastor Tim, Mike and Sherry Murry and our youth crew: Julieanne, Joelie, Logan, Paul, Brady, Amanda, Jacob and Carlee!

You can visit World Changers at www.wroldchangers.com/studentz

Sequoia Community Church is at www.sequoiachurch.org.

Please enjoy the pictures of our adventure.