East County resident donates tool collection to Myakka City pastor

As usual, Lynn Howell, the pastor at Myakka Family Worship Center, was helping a Myakka City resident with roof repairs June 21.

Helping residents and church members with maintenance and building items has become customary for Howell.

But after a fire burned down Howell’s barn and destroyed all the tools inside on Feb. 25, Howell was unsure how he would continue to support the community in any of their home projects or conduct maintenance on the Myakka Family Worship Center.

Then he received a call from Country Creek’s Dudley Waters.

Waters read about the fire and how it impacted Howell and his family and wanted to help. 

He said he already was contemplating what he would do with his large collection of tools and parts from three generations in his family because he’s moving into independent living. His collection included circular saws, chop saws, table saws, jigsaws, hammers, screws, lightbulbs and irrigation supplies. 

Howell was the solution. 

Waters invited Howell to his home to collect almost all the tools to donate to him and the church.

“I joked I had every tool known to man,” Waters said. “I hope it’ll be put to good use for the rest of (Howell’s) life and can be used to benefit the people around Myakka City.”

Besides the tools, which took two days and a U-Haul to collect and transport, Waters also sold Howell six 6-foot metal cabinets. 

Howell said the donation was a blessing. Without the donation, Howell said he would have to either purchase tools or borrow from others.

“We don’t have to run to the hardware store anymore. It’s right there for us thanks to Mr. Waters,” Howell said. 

He said he’s already used or has plans to use the tools to conduct maintenance work around the church, make minor repairs at a senior citizen’s home, build a ramp at a family’s home and repair a deck at another family’s home.

Although it might not seem like a big deal, one tool in particular from the collection is special to Howell — a 16-inch framing hammer. 

“It was a hammer his dad had given him,” Howell said. “To me, that was the most treasured gift because that was something he gave to us he could have handed down in the family or kept it, but he decided to give it to us.”