ServeFest – Norristown Community House
Saturday morning after witnessing the Phillies‘ dismal performance on Friday night, I had a chance to lift by spirits by spending time with my family and the Bowersox family at the Norristown Community House. Our church was sponsoring a huge day of serving in our area, and we hooked up with the Norristown Community House thanks to a Grove City College connection with the Peter and Becky Bowersox, who are in charge of the House.
So what is the Norristown Community House? Good question. You can go to their website to get more details, but I’ll give you my take. The House is located in the heart of Norristown, PA which is the county seat of Montgomery County. Norristown is one of the poorest communities in the county. The residents of the House are young adults – primarily college students – who attend local colleges. By choosing to live in the House, they are agreeing to become part of a community where discipleship, serving, and reaching out to the community are expected. Peter and Becky (shown above with their 3 kids) act as their resident directors and guides. They make sure the House is running smoothly, and they meet with the young adults on a regular basis to participate in the discipleship process.
It really turned out to be a great morning as we helped them clean out a garage attic that was filled with lots of trash, some relics, and a few treasures. By clearing out this space which obviously hadn’t been cleaned out in years, we helped to make storage space for the residents of the house. We discovered an old salon style hair dryer, Vietnam War veteran documents, old clothes and suitcases, a box full of vinyl records, license plates, and lots of dust! Our kids enjoyed sorting through everything as we removed it from the attic.
This clean-up project was a great way to introduce our family to the Norristown Community House. I think we’ll be back to help out on some other projects and to rub shoulders with the young adults and the Bowersox family. Thanks, Becky and Peter for the opportunity to help out – and for getting my mind off the commencement of the Phillies’ golfing season.
How have you served in your community? What things have you done with your family to serve others?