Contact: Jeff Banashak, 251-222-2192, Jeff@evergreen777.com
MOBILE, Ala., July 29, 2014 /Christian Newswire/ -- The notable failure of public housing in cities such as Chicago proved that mass housing by the government did not work. What did work was when the high rise apartments were torn down twelve years ago and people were relocated into neighborhoods. Crime rates diminished somewhat, and opportunities for families rose. No matter how great the success, like Dorothy said about Kansas, "There's no place like home." Home includes being a part of a safe neighborhood; home is a place where one lives permanently. If that place is falling apart, with no heat or air, with rotting floorboards and broken appliances, it's hard to imagine living there permanently. But what can the average person do to help?
Jacque Butler, wife of Federal Judge Randy Butler, in Mobile, Alabama, was given the answer to that question piece by piece. God set her out on an unexpected path of adventure, and as she walked down it, she has seen miracle after miracle of provision take place for people who desperately needed one. She began to write down the stories of restoring houses and lives in her new book entitled, Extreme Makeovers of the 'Hood. She believes that as she and her workers do that, God restores not only the lives of the recipients but also those of the workers, including her own. Jacque's marriage was transformed and now she and her husband sometimes stop together and pick up needed items along the street for the houses being worked on.
She first set out to decorate dilapidated houses, but then one day heard God say, "I am not sending you to decorate; I am sending you to rebuild lives. I am sending you to build up My Kingdom and My people from the ground up, inside and out." Overwhelmed at first with this daunting task, Jacque soon joined with Pastor Ruby of Pure Word Church, and they saw house after house being transformed with help from the neighborhood, while person after person's life was changed. She believes the house restorations were merely the scaffolding for what God was really after. They truly believe that the creative power of God is for today. And today is when Extreme Makeovers of the 'Hood--any 'hood--can begin.
Extreme Makeovers of the 'Hood, by Jacqueline Butler, 144 pages, PB, $12.99, ISBN: 978-158169-483-3, Published by Evergreen Press christian-publishing.net (2014), Distributed by Ingram/Spring Arbor and Amazon.com.
