Archives for March 2013

2013 Jamaica Team Returns

On February 9, our group met at the Nashville airport at 5:00 a.m. to travel to Mandeville, Jamaica. I was one of the “newbies”, slightly nervous and completely unsure of what to expect.  The veterans of the trip assured us that we would love our time in Mandeville and the relationships we formed with the people there. As I stepped off the plane in Jamaica, I began to gradually understand just what they meant.

During our time in Jamaica we served the community through four major projects, the first of which was in the schools of Mandeville.  We were saddened by the obstacles facing children in Mandeville—limited resources, meager facilities, and homes that were often unstable or even unsafe. Nevertheless, in the midst of these challenges, we were inspired by the spirit of the Jamaican people—the songs of the children, their vitality and playfulness, and the teachers who love them and hope to offer a brighter future. 

The second project our group tackled was the construction of a playground for the children of Ebenezer School. Without any space for outdoor play, the school was in desperate need of a playground. 

A few miles away from the school, Mike McGuffin, Stuart Gordon, and Craig Buffkin worked at a community center that was being used to host Sunday School for the people of the neighborhood. They spent the week making the building more secure, functional, and appealing for the community members there. 

Our group’s final project is also the one with the best stories to tell. Cathleen Coyne, an oral surgeon, worked with her newly-trained assistants, John Hollins and J.T. Martin, to serve hundreds of patients and pull out 348 teeth in just four days! 

Read the rest of Allison Milam’s firsthand account here and see more pictures of FPC members serving in Jamaica here.

2010 Flood Home Rebuilt

After the historic Nashville flood in May of 2010, Emerson Eubank and Lili Parham’s home by the river near Opryland was in ruins.  The official report from their homeowner’s insurance agency said their home was over 50% damaged, but they say it was more like “total devastation”.  The interior of the home was completely unlivable because of the smell from the mold that had grown where the Cumberland River had run through their home.  As a result, the home in which Lili had been raised since a child had to be completely torn down. 

Emerson and Lili said they had to find some perspective to begin to recover from their grief.  The perspective they gained was “we know our loss was great, but there were many others who lost family members and pets that day, too.”  

After months of  negotiations and approvals from government agencies and financial help from family, friends, FPC Nashville, Habitat for Humanity, The Community Foundation, and a private loan, they demolished the old home and began building one designed by Lili’s niece, Samantha Schneider, in collaboration with Habitat  for Humanity.

Based on the home’s proximity to the Cumberland River and the grade of their lot, the home had to be built on concrete piers.  Like a phoenix rising out of the ashes, their home now stands taller than any other on their river roadway.

Rev. Todd Jones was joined by FPC members Bobby and Dean Reeves, Ashley Hill, and Patricia and Don Heim to dedicate the home on March 6. They hosted a reception for the couple and the numerous friends, neighbors,  and family members who came to celebrate this momentous day.  FPC  presented the family a bible (theirs had been lost in the flood) and a framed portrait of their niece’s architectural rendering of the home design with verses from Matthew 7:24 -25.  “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.  The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock.”

Lili said that getting to move into their newly built home right before Easter is a blessed reminder of the hope and new life God offers to each of us.

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