Clean Slate

We have just experienced one of the most phenomenal weekends at our church. We were involved in a Women's Ministry missions opportunity we call Clean Slate.

This was our very first one. And it was absolutely amazing! It was totally awesome to help Dee. But probably equally phenomenal was to literally see the Body of Christ operate in complete oneness. I was absolutely blown away. Really words can not describe it!

Dee is a single mom with triplet 9 year old girls. WOW! The girls are with their dad this summer and were not able to be there. We did an Extreme Home Make-Over/Clean Sweep/What Not to Wear all wrapped into one this weekend for Dee.

She lives in a 2 bedroom duplex. She and her daughters had been sleeping in the same room in a bunk bed--she and one of the triplets slept on the bottom that was a full bed and then the other two slept in the twin bed on top--for the past two years! She has shared a room with her girls for 2 years. Well you can guess what we chose to do--give her her own space--a little retreat. Dee is a giver. She works full time and also majorly volunteers at her girl's school and is very involved in their PTA.

We had an incredible team that has been working with her for the past month and then this weekend the Clean Slate took place! We had over 50 volunteers go in and transform her home. We really only completely redid the bedrooms and the garage but cleaned and organized the rest of the house.

Over the course of the weekend we discovered that Dee was behind on a few utility bills and did not have this months rent. We were able to go in and take care of those things for her as well and really give her a Clean Slate--even financially! The Lord provided for this in an unusual way. We also had a garage sale on Saturday morning in the rain and raised over $200 to help with the cost of her bills.

We began on Thursday night. Dee had already started cleaning out a few things so we were not able to get on camera the FULL starting point. Then we worked all day Friday along with Dee until 5 pm. We then sent her to the Renaissance for the night and gave her a gift card to Carabba's for dinner--which was so generously provided by the managers--who just happen to be members at BattleCreek! My sweet friend and co-worker Cindy put a hotel goodie basket together for her. Cindy also was the Project Manager for the entire weekend. Again there are no words to describe this incredible woman--who I am so blessed to have in my life!

The next day our "Family Friend" Liz Pray and myself took Dee to lunch at Panera after she had her hair done (highlights and all!!!) and then we took her shopping with her $200 gift card to Cato's. She had not been shopping in 10 years! We had so much fun as she tried on outfit after outfit. I really did feel like Stacy London! She went to a friend's house to change into one of her new outfits before the big reveal at her house at 4:30.

She pulled into the driveway with BattleCreek on either side clapping her on and with smiles from ear to ear. An amazing moment. This lady deserved to be applauded. Oh my goodness I am nearly overwhelmed right now thinking about that. I just have to stop and say what a wonderful picture I think that was of Hebrews 12:1 "Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses...cheering us on" The Word of God being lived out!

So much more I could say but a picture is worth a thousand words. My sweet friend Ashley Campbell shared her incredible gift of photography with us for the weekend and captured it all for us. Take a look for yourself right here.