Church and community come together to build a home

During his many trips to the Miller home last summer, John Dyer
noticed that often when he showed up, brothers William, Bobby
and Herbert were sitting outside under the shade of an old oak
tree.

They were always sitting together.

So as Dyer oversaw a volunteer construction project for a new
home that would allow the Miller brothers to spend their senior
years in comfort, he kept that picture in his mind.

And when it came time to build the porch on the new house, he
scratched his original plans, which called for a small one.
Instead, Dyer reconfigured the location of the front door and
made the porch large enough for all three brothers to sit
together and observe the comings and goings of life from their
vantage point at the end of Clinton Heights Drive in Ashland.

It's a view they have had nearly all their lives.

The Miller brothers were given a new home this month thanks to
people such as Dyer and countless others from Ashland and the
far corners of the metro Richmond area.

Ashland Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) led the effort
to raise about $51,000 to build the men a new home after church
leaders learned of the conditions in which they were living.

William, 69, Bobby, 68, and Herbert, 66, were living in the
house their late father built in the 1940s. They never left.

The home was in terrible shape. But what started out as a
suggestion to fix a few things turned into a massive
undertaking that brought the community together.

 

* * * * *

 

"Just have faith." The phrase came to
represent a motto for church members who turned their focus
toward Bobby's House Project in fall 2010.

Donna Dennehy, an Ashland resident and church member, knew the
Millers. Bobby spent nearly three decades working on her horse
farm. Herbert also had worked there, along with their father.

She knew their home was in poor condition, and fixing it up for
them "had been on my list of things to do," she said.

Dennehy went to her church with her ideas.

The church had $1,800 set aside for service projects that
members routinely took on in Appalachia. But no new projects
were on the horizon, and after hearing about the Millers'
needs, church officials, including the Rev. Kathy Reinger,
decided to put the money toward renovating the Miller home.

After getting the brothers' permission, Dennehy and others,
including a representative from the Richmond Housing Coalition,
visited the Miller home in November 2010.

"I called them and asked if we could come and look at the house
to see if we could fix some windows or doors or something,"
Dennehy said.

"I knew this house needed some help, but I had no idea …" she
continued, her voice trailing off. The home had well water, but
the indoor plumbing didn't work. The roof was sagging in some
areas and the flooring was questionable. Plywood replaced glass
in some of the windows.

Reinger, the pastor, echoed Dennehy's thoughts.

"It became apparent that we couldn't do the repairs," she said.
The Millers "were going to need a new house."

They were told a new home could be built for about $35,000,
much more than the church's $1,800 service projects fund.

Dennehy remembers wondering how their 65-member church could
raise that kind of money.

It was then that Reinger "threw some words at me that I'd
thrown at her," Dennehy said. "'Just have faith.'"

 

* * * * *

As Reinger recalled, the first of many small
miracles occurred in January 2011, when church officials and
members met to formalize their plans. The idea was to seek
donations from area churches to pay for the project. But they
also needed someone to run the show, someone with construction
knowledge.

 

They found that someone in Dyer, who had only been attending
the church for two months.

"They were saying they needed someone with experience to lead
the project," Dyer said, so he volunteered. He and his brothers
run his family's commercial construction business.

Reinger said church members were prepared to take on the
monumental task of building a home, but when Dyer took over,
"we realized we didn't know a thing."

Dyer created plans, obtained construction permits from the
county and did the legwork necessary to get things on track.
Churches raised money and organized people to work. Businesses
donated materials. The list of those involved — from churches
to business contributors to private donors and workers — was
extensive.

On a hot August morning, a group including the Miller brothers
broke ground.

Reinger recalled something she had been told years before by a
friend: " 'When God calls a church to do a project, God sends
the people to help.' "

 

* * * * *

 

William, Bobby and Herbert
didn't ask for much.

They were getting central heat and air conditioning for the
first time in their lives, two bathrooms and appliances such as
a microwave that they had never owned before.

Throughout construction they worked quietly alongside the many
volunteers. The brothers expressed no preferences for carpet
colors or brand names or cabinetry hardware or anything else
that someone building a home might get excited about. About the
only preference they conveyed, Dyer said, was shower stalls
rather than bathtubs.

On a cool Sunday afternoon this month, the three men gathered
on their new porch in front of a small crowd of relatives,
neighbors and church members. They each accepted keys to their
new home.

Dyer did the honors.

After five months of construction, the 1,500-square-foot home
was finished. It was just steps from their old house, though
the structures were worlds apart.

With the money raised, their first year of homeowners insurance
is paid, as well as all of the back taxes on the property.

In his quiet manner, Bobby said simply of their new home:
"We're blessed."

Reinger said in building this house, a community came together.
Volunteers came out on weekends, some from as far as
Chesterfield and Orange counties. Others made lunches for those
who were working. Many were generous with donations.

Reinger remembers a Saturday when her husband, Bill, was
working on the roof and two men stopped by to help get the job
done. One was an unemployed roofer.

"That kind of stuff just happened," she said. "It was just
amazing."

Inspired by the volunteerism she witnessed, Reinger said the
church is going to continue to raise money for local service
projects, perhaps even another home construction project, for
those in need.

"We didn't build a house," she said. "We built a community."

A community is what Dyer said he was looking for when he and
his wife started attending Ashland Christian Church.

"I see a lot of people around town that are strangers," he
said, and by going to a new church, "I thought that would be a
good way to meet some new people and make some new friends."

He made three, in particular.

Though not officially condemned, the Millers' old house was
ordered torn down by the county. It was the final piece of
Bobby's House Project, though as Dyer said, "it doesn't end
when the house comes down."

"Hopefully we'll have another project coming up," he said. "If
not I've always got the Miller brothers to look after."

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Church and community come together to build a home