What started from a desire to give college students an opportunity to BUILD COMPASSION by serving in the community has grown beyond all our hopes and dreams. Our roots remain the same: young people living compassion in their communities. But since our first project in 2008, we've seen businessmen, churches, city officials, children, and corporate sponsors take up the challenge to CONSIDER COMPASSION as well!
In 2007 Scott Lansing and Dave Giles began pursuing a dream to instill in university students compassion for the community around them. The goal was to help an area director for a university Christian ministry make repairs on their home and fix some drainage issues that allowed water into a part of their house. In 2008 about 50 students and more than a dozen leaders joined together for the second half of their spring break to work nearly around the clock to complete the work in 4 days!
The vision spread and university students began to ask who we were helping the next year. More than 120 students and two dozen leaders gathered to help a widow who had served with her husband in ministry for 30 years. Extensive work was needed and McCoy’s Building Supply Corporate stepped in to help us. Once again, everyone worked around the clock and finished the work in 4 days! This included replacing floor joists, replacing the septic system, converting a porch into a laundry room, reroofing the entire house, installing new kitchen cabinets, replacing carpet, texturing and painting all the interior walls, and landscaping. It was incredible to watch and even made it on the Fort Worth News.
Things have been ongoing ever since. In 2010 a pastor was given only 3 months to live due to cancer. We made the needed changes to his home so that his wife would be taken care of in that capacity. The entire community of Meridian, TX got involved including the county judge who helped make connections, churches from 4 Christian denominations, and local businesses. University students, individuals and businesses from all over central and north Texas also stepped in insuring amazing results. So much food was donated during this makeover that students went door to door in an impoverished area distributing food.
In 2011 Pleasant Hills Children’s Home was in need of the two teenage homes completely remodeled, the cafeteria bathroom needed to be made handicap accessible, the basketball court needed to be repaired, the baseball diamond needed an upgrade, the horse coral needed to be finished, and the young children needed a basketball court of their own. Building Compassion gathered more that 230 individuals to complete those tasks along with adding driveways, more picnic tables, landscaping, and a new septic system. It is amazing what can happen when people join together for one purpose!
2012 led Building Compassion to join with the Bastrop Ministerial Alliance to help 27 families they designated who were uninsured, handicap, or elderly who had been greatly impacted by the Bastrop fires. The work mostly consisted of putting steps, ramps, and skirting around FEMA trailers, but also included fencing and the construction of a pole barn for an individual who raised dogs for a living and had lost her livelihood.
It was in 2012 when Building Compassion became a non-profit. A connection was made with a law professor at the University of Texas. We became an ongoing, multi-semester project for the class on how to set up a non-profit. So much was learned during that time. Words cannot express how grateful we are to the law department and law students for all they did to lay a legal foundation.
Building Compassion traveled to Giddings, TX in 2013 to help a father, his wife, and four children who were living in a home the city was going to condemn making them homeless. The father, who was injured working at a correctional facility, was having difficulty providing for his family much less make repairs on their home. Their local church congregation appealed for our assistance and oversight while they provided some manpower. Local businesses also joined in with university students, churches and businesses from all over central and north Texas to demolish their home down to the studs and start over.
2014 led us to San Marcos, TX to help a Hispanic community who had been taken advantage of by land developers. There was a resident who represented, served and fought for her community, who needed repairs to her own home. While the renovations were being made by Building Compassion volunteers, extra volunteers were sent out to distribute food donated by the San Antonio Food Bank, help with a Vacation Bible School a local Baptist church was putting on for the children of this community, clean up the roadsides, go door-to-door offering haul off services, and help the elderly with organization needs. The initial trip was followed up by a group of high school volunteers Building Compassion gathered to put on a free sports camp complete with creating a permanent soccer field and distributing soccer balls to the children.
In 2015 a single female who helped and hosted international students at Texas A&M University was in vital need of repairs to her home. Repairs were made, cabinets replaced, trees were cut down, a bathroom was added, and a garage was converted to an office. At the same time Building Compassion sent a team of volunteers to help a local church repaint and freshen up children’s Sunday School classrooms.
A rodeo chaplain in Belton, TX was living in a home that was more than 100 years old. The ceilings were falling in, there were no lights in the living room, doors and windows couldn’t close and lock due to the unlevel flooring, and there was no central air and heat. In 2016 Building Compassion volunteers solved these issues starting with leveling the foundation, replacing the doors and windows, and adding central air and heat. Insulation was added, kitchen cabinets were replaced, a multitude of home repairs were made, and new living room and office furniture was provided.
2017 connected us with a man who had opened up his home to homeless teens and young adults. He had a hard time passing by these young men; his house had become wall-to-wall beds taking over the living and dining areas. The home was deteriorating, and he had recently married. They were in desperate need of some private space and better living conditions for the boys. Building Compassion stepped in to convert and divide the home into a private apartment and boys’ living improvements. This included tearing down walls and building walls, gutting the entire kitchen, closing in a porch and adding a shower for the boys. This project is still open in need of a roofer. All of the shingles and materials are sitting on site waiting for volunteers.
The boys’ home was continued over into 2018, but joined by two other projects. One was for a foster -to-adopt family. This family included four biological children, many foster children throughout the years, and four children adopted out of the foster care system. Flooding had occurred in the girls’ room from damaged pipes, and the two rooms for the boys were in need of repairs. In addition, the parents’ room had flood damage. Pipes were repaired, damaged sheet rock replaced, new flooring installed, and fresh paint was applied. The children enjoyed new bedding as well. The other project was for an elderly pastor who had a stroke and was confined to a wheelchair. This makeover consisted of adding a wheelchair ramp, concrete sidewalk, and replacing old electrical wiring and plumbing to the back side of the home. The project is still open due to funding being transferred mid-construction from the bathroom being made handicap accessible to faulty electrical work in an additional part of the house and restoration of heat through the furnace. The opportunity for funding and volunteers is still available.
Due to our passion to help more individuals, we have been led to designate 2019 to making Building Compassion more sustainable. If there could be a greater ongoing income, our focus could be more on service than support raising. We want to acquire land to create a tiny home community that can provide a rental income. There will be tiny homes to rent and spots for others to rent to place their own tiny home on. Affordable housing is a big need in the Austin area. Once again this would be meeting a need for others, but also it would perpetuate our mission. With the help of volunteers, businesses and corporations, we can see this vision come to pass. We will build as many tiny homes as you make possible this year. Help us find land and help us grant write.
Building Compassion “Makeovers” began as spring break events, but have spread to multiple projects per year. The vision is to continue to do multiple projects and branch outside the central Texas area. We want a full-time team to oversee the business needs, internship programs, community services projects, and construction makeovers. There are so many opportunities to mentor and restore lives. Let’s change lives. We know compassion is contagious. Help us birth it in the lives of individuals. Team with us with your time, your skills, your prayers, your network, and your funds. Make Building Compassion sustainable. Great things are on the horizon.
