Lake Zurich woman overwhelmed by church's generosity

Finding herself financially strapped and emotionally drained after a bitter divorce, Rajean Johnson needed help finding a place to live.

Johnson turned to her parents, Ruby and Dennis Johnson, who emptied their retirement account and bought a "handyman special" in Lake Zurich for Rajean and her two young sons. The retired couple planned to live there as well.

But as the family began to make needed repairs, they discovered the formally foreclosed home was in such bad shape, it needed to be torn down.

"My parents used all of their retirement money to buy the house. To find out it was uninhabitable was devastating," said Johnson, 35. "All five of us faced being homeless."

Now desperate, Johnson, a member of Willow Creek Community Church, turned to her pastors for help.

And help they did.

The South Barrington church selected Johnson as a recipient in their "Blitz Build" ministry.

At least 300 volunteers from Willow Creek and a new organization called Love In the Name of Christ, Southwest, have come together to construct a new, 1,600-square-foot split-level home for the Johnsons.

And, remarkably, the house is expected to be built in just one week. Work began last Saturday and should be complete by this weekend.

"It's incredible," Johnson said. "Our whole family would be homeless if these people didn't help."

Willow Creek Pastor Marie Shepherd said Johnson first asked if church members could help with some simple repairs. Those repairs led to the disappointing discoveries of major problems.

"It was one thing after another," Shepherd said. "We started out replacing some windows, floor tile and a couple of doors and then realized there were much bigger problems. The drywall was warped, the floorboards were rotten and there was mold upstairs. It was obvious the place had to be condemned."

Johnson's parents bought the home from foreclosure and had the place checked out by a home inspector. Shepherd said the inspector missed the major problems.

Shepherd said Johnson and her two young sons were in a desperate situation.

"If we or someone else didn't help them, they would be homeless," Shepherd said. "Our job is to follow God's leading and based on how this all came together in terms of the volunteers and donations, it really seems that God has his hand on this."

Shepherd said neither Willow Creek or Love INC, Southwest gave Johnson money. But they did provide the volunteer labor force and made arrangements for the building materials to be donated by local companies.

"There are so many good-hearted people out there," Shepherd said.

Willow Creek church member Bryan Kidd started the Blitz Build ministry in 2003.

He said Blitz Build partners with Georgia-based Habitat for Humanity on many projects. The ministry has built nearly 450 homes across the country including houses in New Orleans and Waveland, Miss., after Hurricane Katrina.

While this latest project might be considered small in scale by comparison, it's no less important to Rajean Johnson.

"My parents and I are completely overwhelmed by the generosity of all these people," Johnson said. "I don't have the words to express how grateful I am."