With rotting wood walls, old rubber tires in the front yard, and an orange extension cord that ran outside for extra electricity, one small home in tiny Wishram, Wash., was the perfect candidate for a “home makeover” television show.
Thanks to North Sound Vineyard Church, that won’t be necessary.
Members of the Lynnwood church traveled to the small southwestern Washington city, population 344, over the weekend of June 21, to makeover the tired home of a Wishram woman and her 11-year-old son.
Church volunteers spent three days taking out windows, replacing siding, cleaning the interior, landscaping the yard, putting in new furniture and appliances, and clearing out debris off the land.
The outing was part of a mission trip designed for the youth group, consisting of 20 members, mostly junior high students. Roughly half of the church’s 80 members made the trip. “The house is kind of a falling down shack,” said Debbie Hingston, whose daughter is part of the youth group.
As a contractor, Todd Vogt, head of the youth group, said that it was challenging because many of the students didn’t have any experience with construction. Having donations from local businesses and manually transporting the materials to Wishram made it possible to have enough resources for the project, he said.
“In Wishram there are really no jobs… there’s not much there,” Vogt said.
In fact, resident Becky Tolentino has to travel to Oregon for her job as a cashier at a gas station. She has lived in that house all her life.
With the help of donations, the youth group managed to bring books, clothes, gas cards, food, beds, and many other items for the family.
“Just totally awesome,” Vogt said of the donations. “A lot of good things happened to make it happen.”
The youth group pitched tents on Saturday and Sunday nights at Maryhill State Park in Klickitat County and worked more than eight hours a day. Even after the weekend, neighbors pitched in by finishing certain areas that weren’t quite completed.
When Tolentino and her son saw their new house and all of the wrapped presents inside, she came out and thanked Vogt with a big hug. Vogt said that Tolentino’s son (whose name wasn’t given) was so excited he was telling all his neighbors, “‘Come and see my new house!’”
The North Sound Vineyard youth group, which initially started with three kids, has now grown to 20 members, Vogt said. When he took over the position as the youth director, it was his goal to go out and help people.
“I want to do mission trips,” he said.
As his first mission trip with North Sound Vineyard, the home makeover was a special event for everyone.
“This is an experience I’m sure we’ll remember forever,” he said.
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