 |
|
Creighton University student Erin Dunlap stands outside the Habitat for Humanity "Blitz Build" home she helped construct as part of her Spring Break Service Trip project. Unlike most service trips, this one stayed close to home; still it went a long way toward helping others. |
Brilliant sunlight spills into my room, filling the cool morning air with warm reminders of our plans for the coming week. I begin this day excited about the Spring Break Service Trip I'm taking with seven other Creighton University students, an excitement that robbed me of a good night's sleep.
I'm excited, in part, because unlike other years when we piled in vans and headed for far off places like Taos, New Mexico, this year we're venturing no farther than the underprivileged areas of North Omaha, just beyond campus. Our home for the next week will be a neighborhood church. We pledge to stay away from Creighton as much as possible and immerse ourselves in community life and our main project – a university-sponsored Habitat for Humanity house.
I've lived in Omaha practically my entire life, never focusing on the social justice issues here. Just the idea of the trip begins to open my eyes, pulling me out of the sheltered bubble of the comfortable life I've been blessed to live. I'm from western Omaha, a place relatively free of the social and economic injustices that restrict opportunity and beset residents in the northern part of our city. North Omaha was once a thriving community for African Americans, but the changing economy of the past five decades makes it difficult for many families to make ends meet.
Though Creighton's campus more or less borders North Omaha, students live for the most part untouched by the poverty, the people it affects, and their life stories. We often dismiss the community so near to where we live and work, barely dipping
our toes into the flow of life there. This week, however, plans call for diving in head first.
 |
| The home takes shape. |
Our first day includes getting to know some of the residents, hearing about their struggles, and meeting people who hope to pioneer new opportunities in the area. My desire is to be open, listen, hear, and learn from those who often go unheard. The more I listen, the more respect I gain for the people I am hearing from – people working so hard to provide their families with the best housing they can afford. I feel frustrated at the arbitrariness, almost like a coin toss it seems, that determines who will prosper with little hardship and who will face constant economic and social struggles.
As we listen, we work. The center of our activity this week is a Habitat for Humanity "Blitz Build." Our group is part of a larger, coordinated effort to build a home on a very short timeline. I have spent much time volunteering with Habitat over the past several years. But this trip is different and reveals for me more of Habitat's true mission.
Habitat does not simply build a house for a family. The phrase a "hand up, not a hand out" drives our mission. Each family selected for a Habitat house contributes at least 350 sweat equity hours working with volunteers, essentially joining hands to build their house with others. It is amazing how homeowners gain confidence and leadership through their involvement, and many continue working with Habitat on other houses even after moving into their own home.
Work on our Blitz House starts early Monday morning. I run to the site and we begin as we do all days this week - with a devotion, prayer, or special story to remind us what we are working for and why. We start with just a wood floor in place and
continue slowly with constant setbacks and frustrations. Because the lumberyards we are working with do not deliver our wood until late afternoon, we have a lot of down time. But we take each moment in stride, do the things we can, and by the end of the day have raised one wall of the home-to-be.
 |
| Volunteers raise a wall. |
As the week continues, our carpentry skills improve, we work better as a group, and the house continues to take shape. At the end of the week all interior and exterior walls are standing and the roof is half-shingled. It feels so incredibly rewarding to see so much accomplished in relatively little time.
However, our trip is about more than building a house. It is also about building relationships and understanding. On day four we briefly visit Sienna Francis House, a North Omaha homeless shelter. Besides helping to serve the food, each of us sits at a table to share a meal and conversation.
I feel nervous and guilty about being there. Thinking about it later I understand my guilt is not just about taking food from someone who might need it more than I do. It is about dropping in, staying for one meal, and having the luxury to walk
away when done.
 |
| Erin Dunlap visits with Tony Kincaid, the happy new homeowner who bought the house she helped build. |
This is my second Spring Break Service trip. I participate because each year it helps me examine my own life and gain insights into the kinds of things I can do to make the world a better, more just place. Reflecting on this trip, I think in a way we are more fortunate to have made our journey within Omaha, rather than away from it.
No time is lost to travel. And with no return journey to make, we can see our project through to completion.
Sort of.
Because now, when I awake in the morning, the sunlight brings warm reminders not of a week spent away in some distant locale, but of the weeks ahead and the things I can do right here in my own home town to make the world a more just place
for my neighbors.
That doesn't just pull me away from shelter of my comfortable bubble; it tends to shatter it daily.
Note: Started in March, the “Blitz Build” home was completed and occupied by mid May.
|
