Habitat for Humanity:Playhouse

Our church is taking part in an Apostle's Build, where churches are coming together to build a house for a family here in town. To help raise funds for the house, a playhouse was built and raffle tickets were sold ($5 for one or $20 for 5). The playhouse has been on display at the mall and people have been 'manning' a table to sell tickets on the weekends. Habitat for Humanity is a wonderful organization, but unfortunately has rules about children not being on the worksite while the construction is taking place(safety). The Waggoner kids have a tough time grasping that rule since they have been helping build houses in Mexico since before they could walk. Anyway, I thought they might like being able to be apart of the build by raising money. So we headed to the mall to take part in selling raffle tickets.

The kids started off a bit shy, but soon found their nice loud voices (the ones they use all the time at home) along with a bit of courage. They would smile and say "Would you like to help Habitat for Humanity?" The whole phrase was a bit foreign to Jennifer, but after saying it a 20-30 times I think she figured it out. I wish I had taken my camera or video camera would have been even better. They were precious and the faces on the 'strangers' were pretty priceless. Unfortunately, they were ignored by some and others promised they would be back-little Princess kept looking for those who had said they would be back. She eventually said "I think people lied to us and they are not coming back" What a tough lesson to learn so young......so if by chance any of you who promised to come back are reading this-you owe our little girl an explanation, a truthful one!

The kids sold several tickets (we stopped counting at 25) and received a lot of donations. They won the hearts of many, I think. There was a woman who was working at the jewelry store, by where we were, who came out with money and said she had been watching Kade. She said he was so much fun to watch-so confident and had a sweet smile-she just had to donate again in 'honor' of his hard work. Of course this made him work even harder. He was quite the salesman who would even walk a little with you if you tried to pass him by. He would boldly repeat himself and it worked several times-ending in a raffle ticket(s) purchase or donation.

I loved the fact the kids worked so hard, stepped out of their comfort zone, all in order to raise funds for a family to have a home of their own. I also loved their expectation of others to care and donate. I was a bit sad that they also learned that some just didn't care/were too busy to stop and others chose to lie to them.

All in all a fun way to spend a few hours on a hot Saturday and a great lesson in service.