BOISE, Idaho — About 150 churchgoers and community members came together to help a family in need nail down their future.
Every year, members of the Cathedral of the Rockies and Boise Valley Habitat for Humanity gather to frame the walls for a house in just one morning to help a neighbor in need.
"Faith is not just about Sunday morning," Rev. Duane Anders said. "Faith is about everyday life and faith is about addressing the issues of the day. One of the issues of the day in the Boise valley is affordable housing. So, the church is trying to be involved in the solution."
Putting faith into action.
"The more they do that, the more they have connection to their faith, and to God, and the church and their community," Pete Schroeder, director of local missions for Cathedral of the Rockies said. "And really, it can focus in on those in need in our community and there are plenty everywhere you go."
The congregation built the framing for the house, and with that, the foundation for a family.
"The family receiving this house came here from Iraq and found a new life here," Boise Valley Habitat for Humanity CEO Janessa Chastain said. "They are able to live here with a lot more safety, a sense of peace, and have really flourished in the about a decade that they have lived here. And now they get to be homeowners."
The frame will go to Boise Valley Habitat for Humanity, who will finish building the home.
"We try to gather right around this time of year to do this," Chastain said. "I know that the churches really look forward to it, and it feels great to have something that you can accomplish and that you can look at the end of it and say, 'Yeah, I built that house. I put that wall together.'"
The event is coordinated by Crossroads Missions, and mixes service, community and a little fun.
"When we get together, I say, 'We'll get the walls built, it doesn't really matter, it's how you get there,'" Joe Wilson of Crossroads Missions said. "If you can enjoy that and have fun doing it with the kids and everything, and that's one thing that we can do, is allow kids to come on the site and build with their parents and with their friends."
Cathedral of the Rockies has framed at least one house every summer for the past 12 years.
"Churches gather for worship every Sunday, and some people think that's all we do," Rev. Anders said. "The truth is churches are about community, and we want to show the community this is what it means to be the church. So, we gather once a year and frame a house with Habitat and then we'll work through the summer to make sure we can get one more affordable house in the pipeline."
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