Mary Anne Vandiver is one of our long-time beloved church members and due to health challenges and mobility has been unable to worship with us in person for several years. In a visit to her house last year Herb and Cathy Hiegel discovered that the layout of her bathroom made it very difficult for her to navigate with a walker. Not only that, but that due to a leaky toilet her floor was rotting away.

This is when some of our church members sprung into action.

Carl Ueland volunteers for Rebuilding Together Seattle (RTS), an organization that focuses on helping low-income homeowners who are in need. Because of his connection he was able to secure a grant to cover the cost of repairing Mary Anne’s bathroom.

What followed next was a true labor of love as Carl, Ray, Aalijah and Herb first took on the task of completely gutting the bathroom.

After that came rebuilding it in a way that would allow Mary Anne to use it more easily. This included more space to navigate with her walker, a new toilet, and a walk in shower. Ray and Carl went to work on much of this and Chad Nickless lent his expertise in installing new tile. The results…a functional and beautiful bathroom!

The Bible speaks of how a pure expression of our devotion to God is taking care of those in need (James 1:27) and how each of us have gifts to be used to demonstrate the love of God. Thank you to all who demonstrated that in a tangible way to Mary Anne.