A Kairos Moment

by: Ann Gibert

Scripture passages are portions of 1 Samuel 17, the story of David and Goliath, and 2 Corinthians 6:1-13

     The story of David and Goliath is familiar to most of us, since it has always been a popular one for Sunday school, vacation Bible school and other child-friendly programs. Who doesn't like a story of a little guy beating up on the bully everyone is afraid of? But there is a “backstory” to David and Goliath which is my focus. At the time of the story, the nation of Israel, led by King Saul, was at war with the Philistines, whose champion was Goliath. David was not even in the army – he had just arrived with a care package from home for his brothers when he heard Goliath's challenge and offered to take him on. Hold that thought, and think about the language in the passage from 2 Corinthians referenced above. When we translate Greek into English, we have only one word for “time”. The Greeks had two – chronos and kairos. Chronos is easy for us to understand – chronology, chronological and chronometer all come from this Greek root. Chronos is “time” in the sense of measured time. But there is another kind of time, kairos time. This is usually translated into English as “at the right time” or “at the appointed time”. When you say something like, “I met my boyfriend at just the right time”, you are talking about kairos. Think of your life as a timeline. On one end, you're born, and on the other, you die. In between you can log in all sorts of details, like the schedule from the calendar on your phone, but if you write a timeline for your life, you will find there are certain times that stand out. Maybe they didn't stand out then they happened, but now you look back and think, “Aha!”. Kairos moment.

     The rest of this story is about an ongoing series of kairos moments that have been happening in Huntersville recently. If you're reading this, it's because you know a little bit about who Betty Patterson is and what happened to her. When this series of events began, I didn't know a thing. That is where I need to start.

     For ten years, groups of youth and adult leaders have descended upon our church and our community to help owner-occupiers rehab their homes. We've done roofs, porches, additions, floor joists, flooring, plumbing, bathrooms, kitchens, laundry rooms and ramps, lots and lots of ramps. Because of issues beyond our local church, this will be our last time to host this program. Jerry Kita and I were talking about how it would be a shame to have folks with all these skills and nowhere to put them to work, and about the confidence and community that had grown among the participants over the years. I remember saying a variation of “When God closes a door, he opens a window”, which, given that this was a construction ministry, I thought was both appropriate and punny.

     A few weeks later, Jerry called and told me that Betty Patterson's house had burned down. My reasonable response was to ask, “And who is Betty Patterson?” Betty is a homeowner in the Huntersville community, and she was on our list to have her roof repaired during our July 2012 camp. Because her roof was in such bad shape, her insurance had been cancelled. We were planning to repair the roof so she could get coverage again. We were a few weeks too late.

This is background for the story of the kairos moments.

     First, Betty normally takes a nap in the afternoon in a room that would have had no exit except through the fire. But that day, she went out to run an errand. She came home to a burning house, and the presence of the pastor of Hopewell Presbyterian Church, Allan Purtill, who happened to be driving by and stopped, like Mayor Cory Booker, to make sure everyone was safe. That kind pastor stayed to comfort Betty, and heard from her the story of how we (the folks at Huntersville UMC) were going to fix her roof. He called our senior pastor, who called Jerry, who called Mona, who arrived at Betty's house before the fire trucks left. That night, a cryptic message went up on Facebook to pray for one of our homeowners. The following morning, Frank Green, a veteran of our camp, called and said, “We need to build this lady a house.” It's what we were hearing too, and getting this confirmation was both a good and a scary thing. We've never done this before. From scratch. Without funding from somewhere. Help!

 

     The pastor of Hopewell Presbyterian called Jerry and told him that since he was there when the fire started, he thought that meant that he and his church should help us help Betty. We reached out to Habitat for Humanity, and they responded with a generous offer to share house plans, contractor info and skilled labor for the build. We had a meeting, and began to develop a plan.

     The first roadblock would be testing the site for asbestos, which would determine the ease and the cost of demolition. The morning following that meeting, our friend from China Grove called Jerry and said that he had been thinking we should have the site tested for asbestos (lol) and that he had someone who would test it free.

     Two weeks later, at our next meeting, several more kairos moments had occurred. Jerry got an e-mail from one of the women Betty works for (she's a housekeeper) offering her help and the help of some people at her business. We invited her to come to the meeting. Our friend, Frank Greene, from First United Methodist in China Grove came, bearing good news (we think) about the asbestos testing, as  was a member of Hopewell Presbyterian, my husband (he's the legal/fundraising advice guy) and two people from Habitat. One of them is a trained site leader who grew up in these parts and, wait for it, Betty worked for his parents. He had already been to check out the site and to talk to her before he knew what we were planning.

     At the end of that meeting, we had assigned some tasks/roles to different folks at the meeting, and agreed on the next steps, which included talking to a church member about serving as a bookkeeper for the project and clearing what we were doing with Betty. The next morning, I really needed to get out of town for the Methodists' Annual Conference, but I had to go by the church office before I left. Who should walk in but the church member I needed to talk to about the bookkeeping. Do I need to tell you she said yes?

     Our other big concern was how to go about raising the money we need. We estimate that even with donated labor, the cost of materials and permits will be as much as $65,000. That's a daunting number. I prayed all the way to Conference and back about this. I wasn't feeling well the last morning, so I opted to come home early. I arrived this past Friday afternoon, and after a nap, was beginning to feel a bit better. I felt a LOT better after a member of the Davidson College community called to tell me that she had been calling all the people she knew of whom Betty had worked for, and had a list of contacts who would be willing to donate. She also had someone who was willing to write and mail the letters!

Did I mention that Jesus wants us to build this lady a house?

I preached at Huntersville UMC this past Sunday, and told this story, and the kairos moments keep on happening. After the first service, a VERY excited youth practically pinned me to the wall to find out how she could help, and she ran off to find her grandmother, who, the night before, had mentioned that she was getting ready to redecorate her living room and was going to give away two very nice chairs, which are now saved for Betty.

After the late service, I got more comments about a sermon than I ever have. I believe that the phrase “kairos moment” is going to become part of the church vocabulary.

Monday, while tying up some loose ends for the mission camp, I met a volunteer from Christ Community Church who has helped us for years. She wants a copy of this so she can see if her church will put together a build team. Then I called our contact at New Friendship Presbyterian. In the course of the conversation, I mentioned that we were transitioning into this new project, hoping that they might also be willing to help. Guess what? She's Betty's cousin! Folks, I could not make this up.

As I told the congregation on Sunday, life is a journey. Take a good map, enjoy detours, and look for open windows. This is a kairos time, not just for Betty, or for our church, but for the Huntersville community. God is calling!