Chris H.: "TIME is a great. Once you get up on the roof you get into it. It’s cool."
TUCKER INTERFAITH MISSION EXPERIENCE
Chris H.: "TIME is a great. Once you get up on the roof you get into it. It’s cool."
Copyright 2008 Atlanta Journal Constitution
June 19, 2008
By Rick Badie
He cut to the chase quickly.
It wasn’t his idea, Chris Honein told me, to spend part of his summer re-roofing a house for the needy.
But before the five-day project ended Wednesday night, Chris was digging it. Mom and Dad were right.
“Every morning you wake up and you have to get going,” the 13-year-old said. “But once you get up on the roof you get into it. It’s cool.”
Well, actually it was hot for a group of young people who hung shingles on three homes in the Tucker area this week. What started out as a youth project for Tucker First United Methodist Church has morphed into a privately sponsored nonprofit called TIME – Tucker Interfaith Mission Experience. It’s purpose: To re-roof one-story homes at no cost to select homeowners who can’t afford it.
TIME volunteers will tear off an old roof and tack on a new one if a homeowner qualifies and lives within a few miles of Main Street in Tucker. New shingles are the tangible benefits, but TIME aims to improve the community, connect the church to the people and, it is hoped, instill in teens a benevolent spirit that continues into adulthood.
That Badie Tour was drawn to TIME for a number of reasons, some selfish. My family attends Tucker First. My son Miles, 12, took part in TIME. Like Chris, he had a change of heart as time moved on. So it was special to see m church and its youth take the lead in a project so simple and humane yet practically an anomaly in these parts.
See, I get it.
Perhaps you don’t. Maybe you take issue with the “hand outs” and “helping hands.” Maybe you believe individual responsibility supersedes and overcomes most any and everything. Maybe you generalize about the less fortunate, judge them, their situation, with scant evidence. Criticism from a position of comfort is crude, callous, inhumane, arrogant.
Know what?
You probably could benefit from spending a little time with TIME. If nothing else, think about eh “what ifs.” Imagine. Dream big.
It’s what John Lukens, the nonprofit board’s chairman, and I did Tuesday evening. Dinner had been served, the tables were cleared. The TIME volunteers were lounging around the Tucker First campus.
“Can you imagine what our youth could be like in 20 years?” he asked. “This is like putting a down payment on the future. Can you imagine if every church partnered with another church and did three or four [roofs] a year? You could help people in a way no government assistance could ever provide.”
Make no mistake about it. TIME is youth driven, though adults work, supervise and chaperone. Teens from Tucker First and Lithonia’s Northlake Church of Christ teamed up this year. They bunked at Tucker First and ate most meals there. They were on the job sites by 8 o’clock or so most mornings and back at the church in the afternoons for dinner, chapel, activities and down time.
Lukens and his daughter, Libby, were part of the 2007 inaugural mission project, when TIME repair four houses. This year they worked on the same roof, part of the same 22-person crew. Libby, a rising senior at Parkview High, was the “timekeeper.” In other words, she was the boss.
“The house we worked on this year was in better shape than the one I worked on last year,” she told me. “I love this experience, and I have learned a lot. I want to play a part in this as long as I can. The youth have to keep this going. We’re helping the community
And we’re all just one community.”
Learn about TIME and the various ways you can support this outstanding youth-driven outreach mission to the Tucker community.
Here's everything you need to know about the opportunities available to serve your community and make new friends through TIME.
Although TIME is youth-driven, there are plenty of opportunities for adults to serve the mission, both on the roof and on the ground. Can you help cook and serve meals one day a week, or chaperone one nights' sleepover? There's a place for you.
Please bless us by helping us bless you through TIME. This section has details and all the contact information you need to see if your home is eligible to be re-roofed as part of the TIME mission.
TIME couldn't serve the community without the generous support of sponsors, who provide building supplies, food, t-shirts, and financial and other support. Best of all, you know your contribution is going straight to work in the local community.
Did you say you can't hammer a nail and don't have time to serve a meal? You can be an essential part of our project by helping support a grandchild, neice or nephew, neighbor, friend, or other youth through the purchase of "Stock" in TIME's work.
See the story of TIME as told through by photograph, television report, and newspaper commentary. Please contact the webmaster for copies of photographs from 2008 and 2007.
In 2009, three churches and one school (from San Diego!) participated in TIME through their youth programs, and the gifts and prayers of their congregations and members. If your church, school, or group doesn't participate, don't worry. Individual youth who are not a part of a participating church or school are encouraged to be a part of TIME 2010, too.
Tucker Interfaith Mission Experience
5095 Lavista Road
Tucker, GA 30084
Homeowners:
Becky Burns
770-934-7080
homeowners@timemission.org
Participants:
John Mitchell
678-325-4050
participants@timemission.org
Information:
John Mitchell
678-325-4050
info@timemission.org
Webmaster:
Gary McClanahan
webmaster@timemission.org