Extreme Makeover Home Edition...in my town!

Last month my friend Daniel asked me if I was signing up to work the Extreme Makeover Home Edition site that was coming to Salem. I jumped online to register. I filled out the form, but they were really looking for professional carpenters, plumbers, painters, etc. None of these describe me. I have no marketable skills. So I said I was a youth pastor who is a hard worker, is enthusiastic, and quick learner. Daniel works tomorrow, I never heard back.

So today my good friend Bex was tweeting about seeing the bus. Her and Josh then proceeded to "stalk" the bus. She continued to tweet and then she texted me to find out what I was doing. She knows this is just the kind of thing I love! What a good friend. So on my way to go for a run downtown, I popped in at the Oregon School for the Deaf. I walked onto the campus and they were having their 100 (or 140 year) anniversary/back to school BBQ. There were tons of Deaf School students and parents.

I got there just in time for Ty Pennington and the team to get up on stage and do the reveal that they were there to help them build a new haunted house. This is something that has been a huge fundraiser for the school, as their funding is not particularly huge. They have been doing it over 20 years and the EMHE team was going to make it even better. They were also going to redo a hallway in the dorm, I think and work on someone's home from the school. They had also given out 100s of hearing aids to students that morning.

I recorded the whole thing and then went to watch it back...turns out I clicked stop when I thought I was starting and start at the very end. The good thing was that they had to come back and do the reveal over again because of some lighting issues...for the THIRD time. Josh, Bex and I had moved around to the other side of the platform and got a better spot where the team would walk by us. Sure enough, the bus honked its way up the hill and the team got out and went up to the platform. As Ty was interviewing Sharla there were these helium balloons in the way that he kept trying to knock away. No one was moving, so I went up and held them down for the rest of the time they were on the stage. That's where you can see the interaction we had on the video. Haha. We are pretty close now. ;)

Robyn, who is our main interpreter at our church, will be flying to Minnesota with about 120 others for a week of vacation and fun while the construction happens. How cool is that?

I love what this show does. I hate watching it because there is no chance I can make it through and not cry. If you want to read more about it you can check out our local newspaper's story on  it here.
Below is the video. Check out 2:03. haha.


What exciting thing has happened to you or your town?