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The Fort Worth Star Telegram has a moving story today called Building on a Miracle.

It begins like this:

Pastor Jerry Phillips wiped away tears Tuesday as he watched volunteers perform an extreme makeover on Calvary Baptist Church's unfinished sanctuary.

"I've never been more emotional," Phillips said.

The sanctuary is being completed this week in memory of music director Mike Coke, who died in June.

After the funeral at the church, Wes Ratliff, Coke's uncle, surveyed the unfinished addition and told Phillips that he could help.

Ratliff is a member of the Baptist Church Builders of Texas, a group of men and women, mostly retired, who travel across Texas and neighboring states to build churches.

Nine months later, the trucks and trailers of volunteers who traveled from all over Texas and New Mexico filled the parking lot of the church at Davis Drive and Pioneer Parkway.


"It's just a way to serve the Lord," one volunteer David Strunk of Snyder, Texas is quoted as saying "God gave me the gift to swing a hammer."

The church had been working on the renovation for about 8 years, just a few days a month, when they could.

The story goes on to follow the volunteers, as they finish the church renovation in the memory of Wes Ratliff's nephew, who had worked at the church for 20 years.

This story, and so many like it raise this question: Does someone need to die for us to do a great story? Why is it that when a reporter simply gets out of the way and lets people tell their own story, they end up with great journalism?