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HABITAT FOR HUMANITY Our church has had considerable experience working together in partnership with this remarkable organization that since 1972 has built over 200,000 houses throughout the world. By using volunteer labor and “sweat equity”, Habitat for Humanity offers homeownership for a 0% interest mortgage. Habitat families then make monthly mortgage payments that go into a “Fund for Humanity” that is used to build more houses for those in need. Each Habitat family is required to put in a minimum of 400 hours of sweat equity, working on either theirs or someone else’s home. Through the gift of land in Salem by Rachel Robinson, the wife of the great baseball player Jackie Robinson, our church sponsored it’s first house, raising over $50,000 and working in partnership with the Madry Temple in New London, a predominantly African American congregation, over 200 volunteers, skilled and unskilled, worked toward the completion of that house. This effort was in honor of the memory of Clarence Jordan, the White founder of Koinonia Farm and Jackie Robinson who broke the color barrier in major league baseball. Our next sponsorship was on land donated by Phil and Judy Simmons, long time members of our church. Their beautiful land on Upper Pattagansett Road in East Lyme became the site for yet another partnership between our church and the Madry Temple, and this effort was dedicated to the honor of Rachel Robinson for the extraordinary spirit that she exemplifies. Once again, over $50,000 was raised and over 200 members and friends worked together in the construction of a Habitat for Humanity House. When our church learned that the Jimmy Carter Work Project for Habitat for Humanity would take place in Durban, South Africa, given our long standing partnership with Central Methodist Mission in downtown Johannesburg, for a gift of $50,000 our church became a “sponsor” of that Project. With 35 volunteers from our church, the Madry Temple, and the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in South Dakota, we traveled to Durban where we were joined by our friends from the Methodist Church of Southern Africa and together we were able to work together on the construction of 7 Habitat for Humanity Homes and at the same time build a stronger sense of community among ourselves.
When our church and the Jewish Federation of Eastern Connecticut led a “World House Journey to Israel and Palestine”, upon our return, working with an interfaith community here in Southeastern Connecticut, we sponsored an interfaith “World House” a Habitat for Humanity home built on Summer Street in New London. A number of our members have served on the local board of directors for Habitat for Humanity, and most recently, Doug Stoehr has provided truly outstanding leadership as the chairperson of the board.
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