A great Story from a project!

This is a project Aaron and I worked on Thursday. On Tuesday the team from Tucson was sent with a work order to Burrels house (I forgot his last name). Burrel has a wife and 8 kids. His wife and one of his kids are witnesses. Burrel had never been happy about his wife being one of Jehovahs Witnesses and certainly did not want the help of his wife's "church" to help rebuild. Burrel is a proud man whose ranch is 130 acres where his home is and another 100+ acres nearby. He raises cattle and horses and is a handy man who thought he would just fix his roof. Well after 7 months he was still missing part of his roof and had bad leaks. The bros from Tucson arrived after having called to say they were coming. Burrel met them in the driveway (the ranch is about 60 miles from our hub and way out in the country) to ask if they were lost. The bros from Tucson got to talking with him about his plans to finish his house. He told them to head on their way and he would do it himself. One of the brothers asked him for a tour of the ranch and to hear about the hurricane damage. While they were touring another brother asked him about his kids and if they planned to help. Burrel welled up a bit and said he has 8 kids and none have offered to help him. While this was going on a few of the other guys from Tucson (oh and by the way Bob and Chris from Merced) were unloading tools and readying to start working on the house. By the time burrel and the others returned he agreed to take some help but that he wanted to work along with them. That was AOK with all and the work started, but not until Burrel insisted on feeding everyone. The next day Aaron and I joined the team to do some siding and facia work. What a great opportunity. Burrels daughter made us "chicken spaghetti"- ok, I want to believe it was chicken but there are a whole bunch of critters nearby whose meat looks like chicken. It was nice to be fed there and Burrel welcomed prayer in house house over lunch which is was priveledged to give. When we finished on Thursday afternoon burrel was overwhelmed with emotion and just couldn't believe that people from California and Arizona would come all the way out to his house and work for free. Burrels family was having a family reunion that weekend and all day family from all over the country, including Santa Barbara and Hemet, trickled in and out while we were working. They were all amazed with what we were doing. The relative from Santa Barbara didn't want to believe that I came from Laguna Nigeul to "the sticks" as she called it to work for free. I said "that's what we do, take care of our own and their families" and that in the end it was really my pleasure. Before we left Burrel was sitting under a tree with the captain from Tucson and wanted to talk about how he paid us and how he would be billed. It was explained that he would be receiving a list of the material costs for what we used. If he wanted to make a donation in that amount it would be welcome but that is was not expected. He was amazed and had tears in his eyes. What a great opportunity for all of us to participate in this. PS< Burrel is in the white t-shirt in the pix