{"id":2017,"date":"2008-06-20T18:37:31","date_gmt":"2008-06-20T18:37:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/?p=2017"},"modified":"2010-12-22T12:24:15","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T17:24:15","slug":"6369","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2008\/06\/20\/6369\/","title":{"rendered":"Family Gets First Look at \u2018Extreme Makeover\u2019 of Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Stan Friedman<\/p>\n

KERMAN, CA (June 20, 2008) \u2013 \u201cMove that truck!\u201d Joe Garcia shouted, and with those instructions, the oil tanker \u2013 rolled away, revealing his home\u2019s extreme makeover.
\n
\nMago Garcia, Joe\u2019s wife, stood and wept. More than 200 members of the Kerman Covenant Church, La Vina Covenant Church, and residents of the city turned out to cheer the Garcias, and some of them wept as well.<\/p>\n

On a Saturday morning last April, at least 100 people gave the family an early morning surprise when they showed up at the Garcias\u2019 door and announced the family had to leave within hours. The friends were sending them on an all-expense-paid trip to Disneyland and were going to remodel the small three-bedroom house. To read a previously published story about that day, see Heading to Disneyland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"FamilyIn 2004, Joe almost died when a tanker truck owned by West Hills Oil that he was working on mysteriously exploded, seriously burning him and a coworker, Ryan Cain. Cain recovered quickly, but Joe still was breathing with the help of a tracheotomy until last February, when doctors were finally able to repair his windpipe.<\/p>\n

The Garcias helped start the La Vina church, which was planted by the Kerman congregation where the family previously attended. The churches \u2013 and then others in the community \u2013 conspired over several months to do the extreme makeover of the home without the family learning what was happening.<\/p>\n

Kerman Covenant pastor Dan Shelton confesses that certain \u201cfibs\u201d were told to keep the Garcias from discovering what was going on behind their backs. He figures God will easily forgive such talk.<\/p>\n

After the Garcias returned from their trip they spent the next weeks living in a home owned by a Kerman Covenant congregation member who had moved. They were under strict instructions not to drive by the house.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, many in the crowd welcoming home the Garcias wore the same blue tee shirts as when they first sent the family packing. The words \u201cMission Remodel\u201d were on the front and \u201cMaking everything new\u201d from Revelation 21:5 was printed in English and Spanish on the back. For additional photos from the event, please see Family Returns Home<\/a>. The top accompanying photo shows the family upon its arrival home. The lower photo shows part of a remodeled bath area.<\/p>\n

Stacey Greely, Kerman Covenant\u2019s youth pastor, joked that people were hoping Mago would hurry to look inside the house because a lot of the crowd wanted to see the interior, but had to wait for the family to do their tour. Once inside, the family was greeted by news crews from two local television stations and the Fresno Bee newspaper.<\/p>\n

The family slowly worked their way through the house, trying to take in all that had been done. \u201cIt was a whole new house,\u201d Joe says. \u201cThere wasn\u2019t a thing inside that hadn\u2019t been touched.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mago fell on top of the bed in the couple\u2019s new bedroom and cried some more, Joe says.<\/p>\n

The Garcias have three children: daughter, Leslie, 16; and two sons, Joey, 17, and Mateo, 6.\u00a0 All of them still are trying to comprehend that the \u201cnew\u201d house is their home.<\/p>\n

The project was born of relationships that have witnessed to people locally as well as others around the world who have heard their story. Joe worked for Scott Cain \u2013 Ryan\u2019s father \u2013 who owned the trucking business. The Cain family also attends Kerman Covenant.<\/p>\n

\"Bathroom\"Accidents such as Joe\u2019s often wind up pitting employee against employer. The Cains and Garcias have demonstrated what Christian love can be, says Michael Jordan, pastor of La Vina. \u201cThey showed what it means to be Christians.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had been brothers in Christ before I started working for him,\u201d Joe says. When Joe started attending Kerman Covenant, Scott invited him to his small group.<\/p>\n

Scott remembers that Joe\u2019s first concern after the accident was not for himself, even as he lay in the emergency room. \u201cThe first words he said were, \u2018How is Ryan?\u2019 That\u2019s the kind of person Joe is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their witness has impacted people in places they never could have imagined. A workmen\u2019s compensation adjustor met with the men several months ago to discuss Joe\u2019s return to work. She told the pair that in her many years of experience, she had never seen anything like their relationship.<\/p>\n

Scott later called the adjustor to tell her what the community was doing for the family. She broke down crying.<\/p>\n

Scott first proposed the makeover and has been overwhelmed by the community\u2019s response. He and others had no idea how the project could be accomplished even as they were able to raise $10,000.<\/p>\n

If put out for bid, the remodeling would cost as much as $70,000, Scott says. Because of all the volunteer work and materials from local businesses, some of the original $10,000 still remains in the bank.<\/p>\n

After the unveiling, everyone gathered to dine on food prepared by the La Vina church \u2013 \u201cThey are the greatest cooks in the world!\u201d Greely declared.<\/p>\n

The dinner was followed by a worship service. Jordan proclaimed that the work was a witness to how God can make all things new \u2013 new communities and new lives. Jordan noted that the gathering included, not only people who were bilingual, but also people who could speak only English or Spanish. The service was done in both languages.<\/p>\n

More remodeling remains to be completed. Organizers have had to wait on permits to add on to the house in order to expand the Garcias\u2019 master bedroom. Air conditioning also will be installed. Later in the year, they will plant a small orchard of pomegranate trees.<\/p>\n

Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KERMAN, CA (June 20, 2008) \u2013 \u201cMove that truck!\u201d Joe Garcia shouted, and with those instructions, the oil tanker \u2013 rolled away, revealing his home\u2019s extreme makeover.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nFamily Gets First Look at \u2018Extreme Makeover\u2019 of Home - Covenant Newswire Archives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2008\/06\/20\/6369\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Family Gets First Look at \u2018Extreme Makeover\u2019 of Home - 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