The F Word

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Our Joplin team lead uses the F word a lot. Terri Gafford doesn’t use it when she hits her thumb with a hammer, although I’ve seen her pound a digit a time or two. No, she uses the F word when she’s telling us the plan for the next 24 hours. The key to a successful trip, she reminds us, is to be Flexible. Things happen; plans change.

For example, we originally planned to stay at the Best Western in Joplin, but Terri and her husband, Chuck, checked it out just before we arrived and decided La Quinta would be safer and more comfortable. We were flexible, changed hotels, and found La Quinta to have a great breakfast and a free room for our team meetings.

People volunteer on a Thrivent Builds tour so they can build a house. They want to be productive. Our scheduled activities can change each day, depending on the weather, progress on the build, and the availability of Habitat staff. It can be frustrating to be ready, willing, and able to work, and instead be forced to stand idle. On Thursday, four of us went to a build site to install soffits and fascia. We had started the job the day before and now suddenly felt competent at new skill and eager to complete our work. When we arrived at the site, we had no tools and no screws for the task. We waited for about an hour, but the site leader didn’t appear until it was too late to begin.

On Friday we went to a warehouse to “prefabricate” wood house frames. It’s a slick system to build lots of houses in a sort time. We construct the frames for interior and exterior walls from a template. The frames are later brought to the build site, where future build teams nail them together. After some training, the males in the group discovered the thrill of using air guns and skill saws, and set to work. Several women in the group, unable to find a role, became frustrated when they were forced to only stand and watch.

Through it all, we remind ourselves that we won’t always make the best use of our time while we’re here. That’s ok, we’re flexible.

Terri’s other words of wisdom are “Sacrifice with Joy.” We’re doing a lot of that to. We volunteers have left our families and our jobs to spend a week in Joplin, helping people have their own homes. We make sacrifices, but it’s a joy to be here. We see many families who have dealt with sacrifices due to the tornado; we spread our joy through our muscles, our compassion, and our commitment to helping them achieve a better life.

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