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<>Saturday, November
26, 2005 Journal Star
By MICHAEL MILLER
of the Journal Star
In Jeff Heft's case, the tools of ministry are a hammer, electric saw and tape measure.
Through His Helping Hands, Heft and a variety of volunteers have been building wheelchair ramps, patching roofs, cleaning out houses and renovating bathrooms for five years for people who otherwise couldn't have afforded the work.
The main beneficiaries are elderly people, widows, single moms, disabled people and poor families. Fees for the labor and materials - wood alone for a recent wheelchair ramp job cost $500 - are charged on a sliding scale, from full to free.
"The only way you don't get help from us is if you've got too much money - but then we might ask you to donate," Heft said with a smile as he sat in the office in his West Peoria home one early November afternoon.
From 2002 through 2004, the
not-for-profit organization did 424 different jobs for 242 households. About
170 jobs have been performed this year for more than 50 households.
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His Helping Hands - Phone: 674-0086 - E-mail: hhh@mtco.com |
"We're bringing the love of God to those we serve in a real and tangible way," he said. "We're putting our hands and feet into the gospel. The Bible is full of verses that say don't neglect the widow, the fatherless and the poor. I think we're being faithful to those directives."
While Heft doesn't include sermons with his work, "we make no bones about the fact that we're a Christian organization."
He tries to deflect people's gratitude to God, but those helped by His Helping Hands are still grateful for Heft's help.
"It's been a blessing,"
said Susan Buckingham, a 73-year-old widow who lives in
No charge.
"He said the only thing that you can do is just pray for us," Buckingham said.
A 31-year-old single mom with two children found out about His Helping Hands through a church she called for help. First, the ministry bought a new water heater for the Peorian, though it was installed by a neighbor. Then Heft repaired plumbing in her bathroom.
"He is wonderful," she said.
Heft and several of his volunteers
worked recently on building a wheelchair ramp for an elderly
Along with Dave Griepentrog, a
fellow member of
"It gives me something to do, keeps me active," Griepentrog, 64, said. "The people we work for really appreciate it, really need it. Most of them just can't afford to do it."
Griepentrog, like Heft and other Helping Hands volunteers, is also involved in Habitat for Humanity, one of the local agencies that refers jobs to His Helping Hands.
An official at another agency called His Helping Hands "a godsend."
"I've noticed a high increase in individuals needing minor home repairs," Sharon Anderson said of her three years at the Central Illinois Agency on Aging.
Finding volunteers to do those
repairs, though, has been difficult because most people are working longer
hours and have less time to give, especially when skilled labor is involved,
Having a handyman organization
proven to be trustworthy also helps seniors avoid being ripped off by con men,
"We're never going to partner with someone we don't trust," said Anderson, who oversees the CIAA's Faith in Action Interfaith Caregiver Network.
Hands unfold
His Helping Hands began after Heft
was laid off from a manufacturing job in 2000. He had become a Christian in
1997 at a Promise Keepers' conference in
A friend offered him money to start his own handyman business, but he declined it. A couple days later, he was getting ready for church when his eyes fell on the cover of the May/June 2000 Discipleship Journal. The cover featured a photo of several hands joined together with the caption, "Who Wants to Be a Servant?"
"It was like God asked me that question," Heft said. "I said, 'I do, but I don't know what you want me to do.' He said, 'Help others.' "
After a few nights of prayer in the wee hours of the morning, Heft felt led to start a handyman ministry. The friend who had offered him money for a business then donated the money for the ministry startup. Meanwhile, Heft was taking notes during prayer time to record all the ideas that were coming to him.
"Out of those ideas, those notes, came His Helping Hands," Heft said.
It also was an answer to a question that had occurred to him while accompanying youth groups on missions work trips over the years.
"I thought, 'Why do we have to go somewhere else to fix somebody's home? Why can't we do this in our own back yard?' "
Heft started picking up odd jobs on his own as he got the word out. After getting tax-exempt status, he formed a board and started making contact with social service agencies, which started referring jobs to him. Donations also started coming in, getting His Helping Hands to the point where Heft was able to start taking a $300 weekly salary, which he's been taking ever since.
"Now we're trying to get into more churches," he said. "Who knows more about who needs help than all those churches in town?"
Though Heft attends a Lutheran church, he's trying to make His Helping Hands interdenominational so the ministry's impact can be widened.
He said HHH has a core group of volunteers, but not enough skilled workers, such as certified electricians and plumbers. He's hoping to be able to get enough of those types of volunteers to have them be team leaders or work independently on assigned jobs. "That way, we can maybe have four or five jobs going," he said.
Or more.
"When I was convinced this is
what God wanted me to do, I figured with God that we'd do it in
[photo]
Jeffrey Heft trims a post on a
wheelchair ramp for