Habitat World Online

The Value in Community Service

Habitat for Humanity's work around the world depends on volunteers who manifest their concern for others through hands-on service. The beauty of community service--and of Habitat involvement in particular--is that the benefits go both ways. Clearly, not only are individuals and families in need helped, but volunteers find they receive rewards as well. The following quotes reflect the value some have found in community service.

"Service ... is love in action, love 'made flesh'; service is the body, the incarnation of love. Love is the impetus, service the act, and creativity the result with many by-products."
--Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author

"We have invited strangers in, and they are no longer strangers. They are friends."
--Millard Fuller, founder and president of Habitat for Humanity International

"I used to believe that the action of a single person would have no effect on the world whatsoever. Now I realize I was wrong. The potential power of an individual to change things around him is truly remarkable."
--Kathleen Kwan, Habitat volunteer, Singapore

"Jesus said it is not enough to limit your love to your own nation, to your own race, to your own group. You must respond with love even to those outside of it, respond with love to those who hate you. This concept enables men to live together not as nations, but as the human race. We are now at the stage of history where we will either take this step or perish."
--Clarence Jordan, from "The Substance of Faith and other Cotton Patch Sermons"

"It's just the greatest thing in the world to be part of this, to know you're changing whole generations of lives."
--Frank Barker, Habitat volunteer and former affiliate executive director, HabiJax, Jacksonville, Fla.

To local volunteers: "Thank you all very much for the endless hours of phone calls, meetings, chasing down the details of each project, pounding nails, playing with concrete and for the time you have given to make people's dreams a reality. As volunteers, you have not just helped create a house, but with your love, you have helped to make it a home. You have put hope into distant wishes. Volunteers have given real love in a very personal way. You have given of your time and desire."
--Ralph Nyquist, board president, Itasca County HFH, Grand Rapids, Minn.

"To serve is beautiful, but only if it is done with joy and whole heart and a free mind."
--Pearl S. Buck, author

"Your life is about your intention, and at the end of the day, God judges your intentions. I saw [volunteering with Habitat] as an opportunity to share, to give back. ... This is a wonderful opportunity to give back and make life more meaningful."
--A.K. Mahomed, Habitat volunteer, South Africa

"You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end, each of us must work for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity."
--Marie Curie, scientist

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'"
--The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.