More to Be Thankful For

Yesterday something wonderful happened.  After a five-year gap, Habitat for Humanity of Greene County, VA handed over the keys for a newly refurbished home to its new owners, the Morris family.

There is a popular misconception that Habitat for Humanity gives houses away to people.  This could not be further from the truth.  In fact, not only will Sandra and Jon Morris be paying on the mortgage for their new home, but before they ever received the keys, they and their extended family worked alongside our Habitat for Humanity volunteer work crew, completing more than 25% of the 1,500 + hours it took to bring this house back from its former rundown state to the comfortable three bedroom home it is today.

This was a combined effort, a labor of faith, trust and of love for everyone involved.  Beginning last November, working the first two Saturdays of each month,  70-some volunteers worked on this project; pulling down drywall, ripping out rotted flooring, crawling under the home to pull out old insulation, painting, caulking, replacing all the windows and exterior doors, gutting and remodeling the kitchen and bathroom and sprucing up the landscaping.  Supporting their efforts, members and organizations in the community brought lunches so they didn’t have to worry about bringing a lunch or going out and getting something to eat.

It was a long year pulling this project together.  Fundraising is a challenge in our community.  Our Steering Committee is small, whittled down to five volunteer members and a part-time Chapter Director but with dedication, long hours and our eyes focused on our partner family, we managed to get it done.

It was heart warming to see so many members of our community show up on a very blustery November afternoon to show their support for Habitat for Humanity Greene County and the new family as they joyfully accepted they keys to their new home.  I know I walked away with a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction.

We can’t rest too long on our laurels because we have another family waiting in the wings, who like the Morris’, have already worked alongside our crew with the understanding that their home will be the next one to be built.

Like other places in our country, affordable housing is an issue that has long been ignored by many.  Our national conversation seems to be centered on gun owners’ rights, immigration and same-sex marriage as threats to the American way of life, it seems to me that affordable housing is a more pressing problem.  More time and effort needs to be spent on finding ways to ensure that everyone has a decent, affordable place to live in this country of abundance and grace.  Over the past five years I have visited homes of folks desperate to live free of leaky roofs, rotting floors, and over crowding.  You might ask, why don’t they simply move?  The short answer is that there is no place for them to go.  Many of them are elderly or disabled and Social Security is their only form of income.   In many cases, that would barely cover rent let alone food, health care, transportation.

This is a problem I certainly can’t solve on my own.  At best I can recognize it and share my observations with others and keep plugging along with Habitat for Humanity trying to find the answer one family at a time and pray that others will join me.  If the six of us can organize the rehab of a home for one family, imagine what ten or twenty of us could do!

Here is the link to the NBC29 spot on our dedication:  http://www.nbc29.com/clip/13920142/habitat-for-humanity-renovates-home-for-greene-family