Community Corner

Mission 'Extreme Makeover' Set for Saturday

Multiple organizations participating in effort.

He called it "putting faith into action."

That is what Tim Lucas, the lead pastor of Morristown-based , said when his congregation decided to get involved in relief efforts for transitional home, its and a private residence for the pastor of the Mission, which were all badly damaged as a result of last summer.

A couple months ago, Lucas' church–which has locations in Morristown, Nutley and New Brunswick–conducted what Instead of parishioners putting money into a bucket, they were called to take an envelope from the bucket, an envelope which contained either $10, $20 or $50 bills.

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Parishioners could choose to keep it, or could contribute to some specific service locally.

Tom Kang, the pastor for Morristown's congregation, suggested the Market Street Mission. "They do an incredible job, as a rescue mission," Lucas said. "It was interesting timing."

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With about 250 volunteers, including members of Liquid Church, Morris Habitat, College Hunks Hauling Junk and the Shauger Group, the group was to descend upon Market Street Mission's "True Strength Facility" on George Street on Nov. 5 for a complete repair, refresh and renovation.

Call it "Extreme Makeover: Morristown Edition."

Lucas, in Liquid Church's sermon, said parishioners were challenged to creatively invest their "reverse offerings." One parishioner, a baker, took her $50 for supplies to make a cake, which she then sold for $500, which was donated back to the Market Street Mission effort.

It could use all the help it could get.

"It was completely flooded," Lucas said. "There was over seven feet of standing water [from Hurricane Irene]."

In addition to repairing what Irene damaged, the volunteers will be giving what already was a tired facility some new touches, including a new kitchen, plumbing, sheetrock, flooring, a weight room and washer/dryer.

In total, $90,000 ($30,000 from the reverse offering, plus an additional $60,000 from Liquid Church) is being contributed to the effort.

College Hunks Hauling Junk, based in East Hanover, is donating furniture to the cause, either for the transitional facility, or to be sold at the Market Street Mission Thrift Store.

Stephen Bienko, owner of the moving service, first thought of getting involved in some sort of relief effort following the hurricane's damage region-wide. "We saw a lot of need for people really devastated by the storm," he said. "We needed to do something about this."

They got in touch with Morris Habitat and Don Shauger of The Shauger Group, based in East Orange, who both expressed immediate interest in helping out.

"We had a team I knew could take on this task," Bienko said. "The next piece was finding somebody to help–you don't just knock on somebody's door."

Through mutual connections, Bienko and Liquid Church got together, and the collaboration was born.

"It's a community project," Bienko said. "We just set the foundation for it, but the final results will come from people in the community."

"We're just very thankful to [everyone] for helping us out. This is unbelievable," said David Scott Jr., with Market Street Mission. "This is just incredible what they're doing for us."

Scott said the transitional house, a former furniture store, was already in rough shape before the storm, calling the flooding "a blessing in disguise.

"This will provide a place for guys who after (at Market Street Mission) will have three months to stay in this building, to get back on their feet and rehabilitate," Scott said.

"I think it shows that at a time of great need, it's not dependence in government but dependence on each other," Lucas said. "We have to depend on each other to help one another in great times of need."

"Every American dollar bill says 'In God We Trust,' and God trusts them," the pastor added. "He's given us our talent in order to serve our neighbors. I think people are just waiting to rise up and serve."


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