Bux-Mont Christian Church Builds Hope for the Homeless

Building dreams takes a dreamer and dream. Add to that dream a few dozen volunteers with some tools and a vision and you've built the dream and a place for those in need to live.

Saturday in the parking lot of on Jacksonville Road in Ivyland, an orchestra of hammers and drills could be heard while more than 100 volunteers helped build house frames as part of the “Help Build Hope” project sponsored by the church.

This is one of seven house-build projects the church has sponsored, according to Jon Fisher, church outreach coordinator. For this particular house's destination, Fisher's New Orleans contacts led him to the CrossRoads Mission and their field person, Brian Gioe.

CrossRoads Mission is a group that organizes Help Build Hope projects by coordinating volunteers that do the house framing and providing supervision at the build site.

Fisher is also involved in mission trips during the year. He helps coordinate at least two mission trips per year in the U.S., mostly disaster relief activity. After Katrina, Fisher organized eight trips to New Orleans and some to Birmingham Ala., where the house frames from yesterday's build are being sent.

Volunteers arrived at 8 a.m. and worked until 1 pm, when all of the frames were complete, Fisher said. Bux-Mont Christian Church foots the bill for each year's project, costing between $6,500 - $7,000.

“The money goes to pay for all of the lumber in construction,” stated Fisher.

This year, however, the truck and the driver's time to transport the house frames to Birmingham were donated. All homes previously built stayed local, with their last one being constructed in Bristol. The additional cost of renting a truck was estimated to be thousands of dollars, explained Fisher.

“It's a big deal to have it donated,” he said.

The truck left the church's parking lot approximately 1 p.m. and will arrive in Alabama with the house frames on Tuesday.

And how long does it take to plan an event of this importance? Fisher said they start planning around October and then really get 'serious' about donations by January. It does get easier each year, Fisher admitted, with about six active people helping to pull it all together.

“We don't do well with business donations, but we do very well with food donations,” he said, extending his kudos to local businesses including Starbucks and Annie's Water Ice of Doylestown, Chick Fil A of Warrington, Lehigh Valley Farms, and Ann's Choice.

And to add yet another extension to Bux-Mont's humanitarian tracks, Fisher is seeing other churches in the area get interested in hosting their own house-builds.

“It's a really cool thing going on,” he said.

There is never a problem getting people to come out and help, especially on a beautiful, sunny Saturday, said Fisher. Included in this build were not only local people but a group of members from Legacy Christian Church in Allentown, organized by Christine Snedecor. Volunteers came from the Allentown area, including Emmaus.

Fisher said they are still in need of people to help recovery efforts in Birmingham, and if anyone is interested in taking a trip there with other volunteers on October 7 through the 13, please contact him at jonrfisher@yahoo.com or call (267) 984-3767.