First UMC Middletown's Habitat Build - Building God's Future

On a cloudy, mild November Saturday, members of First United Methodist Church Middletown came to Summer Street in Portland, CT, alongside students invited from Wesleyan University, and from Hartford Seminary and the local Muslim community, to help build a home for a deserving family. Habitat for Humanity Middlesex had broken ground on this site only a few weeks before, and already there was a poured foundation and the beginnings of the framing that would develop into a home for four children and their parents. 

It was a big build team, but there was plenty to do, and the work was filled with the satisfaction of doing something that was for a loving purpose. We were not just putting up framing, joists and flooring: we were building a child's bedroom and the beginnings of shared spaces that would offer people hope, the kind of hope that was promised to discouraged people in Jeremiah 29:11. If faith is inviting God's loving future into the present, then truly we were all busy at building God's future here and now.

Our thanks go out to everyone who participated in this event, and the dedicated build team leaders from Habitat for Humanity. Working with students whose faith is working alongside our own to bring God's hopeful future to the whole world, a world so much in need of God's restoration, was a great privilege, and, for many, a great joy. We can all learn from one another - and work together for good.