Sanctuary

I had just turned 10 in April 1968 and though not very aware of the world beyond my segregated suburban Washington, D.C. neighborhood, I remember hearing of the assassination of Dr. King and feeling, somehow, it was a major loss for humanity.

Years later, after much study of the Civil Rights movement in the U.S. and on Dr. King in particular, I consider him to be one of all-time great Christian leaders—understanding as well as anyone—the cost of discipleship and how to live a life for others.

At Habitat for Humanity our work is focused around the building of homes and providing families the opportunity to own those homes.  A new tagline of ours is, “through shelter, we empower.”  I would say that the part of my job that I love the most is when I get to sign deeds of real property over to families who never imagined owning property.  Turning over ownership—in a capitalistic culture--that’s truly empowering.

As Christmas approaches, I am taken by the words of a young, very empowered Palestinian woman a couple millennia ago:

And Mary said,

On September 14, I received a call from Habitat for Humanity International CEO, Jonathan Reckford, asking if I would consider a 4 week temporary assignment to help Habitat plan its response to the devastation caused by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in Texas and Florida.   I gave it some quick thought and checked in with my family and our Habitat Wake board and leadership team and accepted the assignment.

Our hearts go out to the Houston residents starting their recovery from Hurricane Harvey. We've been in touch with Houston Habitat about helping them, and learned that they have more than 100 homeowners with acute needs.

At Saturday’s dedication of Guesh and Marta’s home sponsored by the Methodist Coalition and Schneider Electric in Crosstowne, Rev. David Haley of Knightdale United Methodist Church shared a story of a dedication he attended years ago while he was on staff at Habitat for Humanity International.  A young girl whose family’s house was being dedicated commented, “WE HAVE A HOME.  WE JUST NEED A HOUSE TO PUT IT IN!”

Amen to that.  What more empowering thing can a ministry do than to work alongside a family to help them realize the dreams they have for their family?

This weekend, Raleigh is experiencing some of the coldest temperatures of the season.  The cold is on everyone’s mind.  I’m not afraid to admit that I don’t like cold weather.  I’m a cold weather wimp.  And this may sound cheesy, but every night when I get in bed, I am consciously aware of the house being warm and being grateful for that.

“How can we achieve a certain kind of compassion that stands in awe at what the poor have to carry rather than stand in judgement at how they carry it?   For the measure of our compassion lies not in our service of those on the margins, but in our willingness to see ourselves in kinship with them—in mutuality.”                                    

Father Gregory Boyle, SJ.  Founder of Homeboy Industries, Los Angeles

Listen to this:

But Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible."  

Matthew 19:26

Habitat’s founder, Millard Fuller (1935-2009) would often remind us that with God all things are possible—even making sure everyone on the planet had a decent place to live, but that nowhere in scripture did it say it would be easy.  I’m reminded of that often as we go about our daily work.