Grace Through Hammers & Nails

McFarlin missionaries brave the cold to build a House From The Ground Up. (l-r) Matt Jankowski, Ed Cook, Rick Hall & Jon Voeller

It’s a cloudy April morning and the breeze still has bite. In a golf cart near the entrance of McFarlin’s south parking lot drinking coffee from a silver tumbler is Jim Frailey. This is where you can find him most Sunday mornings, serving as a member of the Safety Team. It’s one of the many ways that Jim gives back to the community that he and his wife Cherry joined nearly a decade ago. This level of service has become an important part of Jim’s story.

In 2015, Jim went with the House From The Ground Up mission team to the Rio Grande Valley to construct a home for a single mother whose house had been destroyed by an arsonist. That was the first year McFarlin sent such a team after learning about the ministry of a Methodist pastor in South Texas who led similar projects through a venture called “Home in a Week.” That first year, McFarlin’s team of 26 met with pouring rain, the resulting mud and one logistical challenge after another. Nevertheless, they completed most of the work, and students from our Spring Break mission trip helped finish the project, giving the family a new home.

Don Gough & Jim Frailey serve together in South Texas.

Mike and Carol Fain were with Jim that first year, and like him, they’ve been back every year since. Not long ago the team had a reunion after Sunday worship to talk about their experience and begin planning their 2020 trip.

“That first year was about figuring out what needed to be done,” Carol recalls. “Now it’s about how much more we can do.”

Rick Hall & Dave Edwards raise a roof for a family in need.

Over Panera sandwiches and the crinkle of bags of chips, the room buzzes with anticipation and shared memories. Asked why he keeps serving, Mike said, “It was with a great deal of hope and a great deal of faith that this idea could flourish and be taken wherever it would lead. We’re giving families a house that we hope will change their lives.”

Matt Van Every serving for the first time on the House From The Ground Up team.

Most of the members of the House From The Ground Up team are retirees, and they’re eager to invite a new generation to serve alongside them and to continue this work of changing lives. Matt Van Every was new to the team this year. In his early 30s and with an entrepreneurial spirit, Matt’s had success starting and selling businesses and found himself yearning to make more of his days, more of his connection to his church family. “I wanted to serve so that I could have more intimate relationships with people in the church, more than just shaking hands and a quick hello when we pass in the halls.

Mark Phillips uses his skills to serve on the team.

“I’m reaching a point in my life where I want to focus more on how I use my time; it’s the one thing we can’t get more of, and in today’s world, we can get so ingrained and entrenched in what we have going on that it’s important to do things that keep us connected as humans,”

said Matt. Toward the end of their meeting, team members began talking about other needs here in Norman that they could help meet … other lives they could work together to help change.

When someone mentioned a local family who needed ramps installed in their home to help deal with a terminal brain cancer diagnosis and the required hospice care, Jim and Matt were the first to volunteer to help. In two days, they designed, built and installed ramps for this family and spent time visiting with them, extending God’s healing love and grace in ways they couldn’t have imagined when they first signed up for the sawdust and sweat of South Texas in the spring.

Merry Voeller shares her time and talent to make "home" a reality for a family.

“There’s something special about the comradery, being a collective people … being the church,”

Matt said after they completed the ramp project. “Every year, this time of year, when we see each other around the church,” Jim adds, “we say to each other, ‘Well, are you going this year?’ Who’s going to say no?” They laugh, and in their smiles it’s clear that the mother in the Rio Grande Valley and the family in Norman aren’t the only ones whose lives are being changed through God’s church.

Be part of McFarlin missions – you’ll find friendship & joy as you change lives. (l-r) Matt Van Every, Matt Jankowski, Bob Warner & Howard Zimmerman

Interact with the mission worksite through our online photo gallery at www.mcfarlinumc.org/alive

Join or support our House From The Ground Up mission, or explore other local, domestic and international mission opportunities by contacting Executive Minister Michael Andres at 321-3484 or mandres@mcfarlinumc.org