The House

Monday, during an ice storm, several board members and guests joined Lisa (we can use her name now) the homeowner at her house in Terril to survey the work to be done. We shivered in the gutted house and saw again the great potential of the open concept, the great windows, and the very nice lot for raising a little family.

I'm going to let the photos speak for themselves. The one where board members Ed and Nick are standing, talking to Earl, the master plumbing and heating guy -- they're standing in the bathroom. No, really. The frost footings are there for the water and sewer lines, but that part of the house had to be demolished so the bathroom, right now, is open air.

The house needs everything, but we're up for the challenge.

We can't do it on our own. We've had a donation of insulation as well as many hands ready to help. But everything from drywall to flooring to wiring to plumbing to a furnace and air conditioning to appliances is still on its way.

Will you help deliver it? Any day now the Fuller Center for Housing -- Iowa Lakes page will appear on the Fuller Center for Housing website at http://fullercenter.org/ The page will have the Donate Now button. Otherwise, feel free to email us if you have an in kind donation we can pick up.

Thank you for helping us create livable housing for our friends and neighbors in the Iowa Lakes.

Enjoy the photos.

And...this video, reminding us that God uses us "as is." You might think you don't have what it takes to serve God and do big things for Him as His hands and feet here on earth. Trust me, if Ed and I can do it, you can, too.

This song, by Iowa native Peder Eide, reminds us that nearly everyone God used whose story was recorded in the bible started out with serious deficiencies in ability, character, and motivation.

If you feel a pull on your heart and a recurring image in your mind of some way you can make the world a better place, I hope you will act on it. God will fill in what you lack.

Home for Christmas

Are you on Facebook? If so, we invite you to join our Facebook group here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=35209756523&ref=mf#/group.php?gid=34605411908/

The Fuller Center Iowa Lakes family is growing. We have our five board members -- a diverse group of our friends and neighbors in the Lakes area -- and more volunteers are coming forward. We will be meeting with our board soon to sign our Articles of Incorporation and ByLaws. We've received some in-kind donations for our first project house and will soon be able to receive monetary donations, too.

As a nation, we're in the worst financial situation since the Great Depression. Has that affected your giving? It will affect everyone and everything. It provides all the more reason to help our struggling neighbors make their homes livable so they can stay there.

I talk a lot in this blog about the call on my husband, Ed's, heart. We've been so affirmed, so blessed, so overwhelmed by how it's all coming together -- confirming what we've felt for years.

Okay, here's the video for this blog. It's by my favorite band, Downhere -- a new song that came out this Fall.



"Here I am, Lord, send me. Somehow my story is a part of Your plan."

"In this mess, I'm just one of the pieces. I can't put this together, but You can."

Blessings in this season to you all. In Advent we remember the light in the darkness. In His birth, we'll see the light fill the world. Thank you for glowing some light in the darkness, for having faith that He will put together your piece of this mess.

Give Thanks

We're still waiting with hoping hearts for board members to find their way to us. Ed has also been out tirelessly recruiting. We have many hands ready to swing a hammer, but not enough people willing to give some time to prayerfully steering our course.

Each blog I hope to add a video from YouTube or GodTube that helps illustrate our theme. Last time it was "Lifesong" by Casting Crowns. This is Ed's lifesong to God and to the earth. I have faith that God will make it all come together in His perfect timing.

Waiting is hard though. "Leah" and her daughters are spending another winter in borrowed quarters. The older daughter is growing and it must be hard knowing the place they're staying is not really theirs. The infant, Mary, is starting to get around and form memories. Wouldn't it be great if those memories could be in the little home her mom and late grandpa made for her?

I'm going to take a little step out and post two short videos. One is a spoken word poem called "Faith" by Sean Camoni of New Jersey, one of my favorite spoken word artists on YouTube.



Faith is "a hammer and nails to put up the walls/careful construction the house never falls."

"Hope for a home/faith can finish the roof."

He calls us to be His hands and feet.

Can we show Leah and her little family the "evidence of providence?"

The other video I want to send out to all you board members is the Canadian band "downhere" with their song, "Little is Much." Any little bit you can give in faith to your friends and neighbors, He will multiply.

Thank you for your prayers, your offers, your hands, your evidence of heaven in our neighborhood. I pray that God blesses you every day -- He does: sometimes you have to look around for it.

Please subscribe if you have a blog feed and if you've found your way here, please go head and leave a comment, if only just to say hi. Thanks.

The Promise of a New Day

Fall weather is coming on. Do you know where you're going to live this winter?

Do you have appliances and utilities?

Is your roof sound and secure?

Do your windows keep out the elements?

If the answers to all these questions is yes, then I hope you will take a moment to thank God for your blessings because not everyone has the great shelter you do.

Not even everyone here in our bucolic Iowa Lakes.

My name is Amy Peterson, and God has called my husband, Ed, to a life of serving others through the Fuller Center for Housing. Until everyone has a secure and decent place to live, the work of the Fuller Center will not be done, and neither will the call on Ed's heart.



We're not some wealthy philanthropists. We have had our share of financial struggles. We're also not more special or more close to God than anyone else. I think what sets us apart is that we've made the choice to trust God to care for our material needs. He's shown us great blessings in every other area. We need Him, and he's shown us that He needs us to be His hands and feet on earth.

My husband shares the sentiment of Millard and Linda Fuller (they started Habitat for Humanity 30+ years ago, and in 2005, they parted ways with the Board of Habitat and started the Fuller Center for Housing) that "I love you" cannot be said in many better ways than lifting a hammer to build a livable home for someone who needs it.

This blog is not about us, though. It's about your friends and neighbors here in the Iowa Lakes. As the Clay County Fair brings us great music, food and fun, and the sound of swimmers splashing and boats speeding through the waters of the Okoboji Lakes starts to slow, this blog will show all of you what God has shown us -- that in the middle of the beauty He has created here with our glacial lakes, there are families with inadequate shelter around them.

Maybe they've had their home for quite awhile and it's fallen into disrepair.

Maybe they bought it as a fixer-upper and health problems, job loss and burdensome expenses have made it impossible for them to make the place livable.

Maybe they are like Leah (not her real name), a woman in Dickinson County whose smile brightens the dark main room of what had been her dream house.

Leah has a gorgeous, blonde, middle school aged daughter who shares her mother's megawatt smile, and an infant daughter whose grin will match just as soon as she gets some teeth.

Leah's dad bought the house a few years ago. Leah and her dad were going to fix it up together and make it a permanent home for Leah and her daughter. They bought some siding and insulation and tore the walls down to the studs. They got a great start on the siding when Leah's dad became ill.

He had cancer and couldn't work on the house anymore. Rolls of insultation and planks of siding still sit in the empty, stripped main room. Leah's dad passed away in 2007.

Soon thereafter, Leah became pregnant and had a beautiful baby daughter.

Standing inside the house in Terril, it is still possible to see a flicker of the dream. We could leave the ceiling in the front room vaulted and create an open concept where Leah can keep an eye on her soon-to-be-mobile baby while making dinner, and looking over her older daughter's homework at a sturdy kitchen table.

There's room for three bedrooms in the cozy dormer -- and Leah did get a start on the steps leading to it. There's no bathroom, but one can be added where the plumbing footings are.

This first project is a huge challenge, but we're up for it. Bring it. We're from Iowa. We have the potential of many young volunteers -- our teenaged neighbor hopes to get into the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and wants to volunteer along with his friends for some more community service credit toward his application. He's student council president at the high school, so he'd have the influence to mobilize a lot of youth from Spencer.

The Youth Pastors at Bethany Lutheran Church are hoping to bring together the youth groups from at least four ELCA churches in the region for a workday or weekend.

Everywhere we talk about the Fuller Center, we find many willing hands. Leah, in her exuberance, has a number of caring people around her who also want to help with this endeavor.

We need some willing hearts and minds for our board of directors so we can sign our covenant partnership agreement with the Fuller Center and start building hope in the Iowa लक्स.विल