A Show of Good Faith...
And a Firm Resolve
Faith is a central component in Habitat for Humanity's approach to partnership housing. Every day, Habitat volunteers and homeowners demonstrate not only faith in God, but also faith in family, in the future, in hard work and in so much more.

by Rebekah Graydon

	While faith in God is at the forefront for many low-income families, they also have faith in themselves, in their children and in the hope that things will improve. Pictured here in Piracicaba, Brazil, are Sueli Souza (far left), Alice Souza and Ana Paulo, 4.

Faith in family
Providing a comfortable, secure foundation for his two daughters motivates Freddie Lawton of Savannah, Ga., to do many things. It motivates him to attend every one of his daughters' doctor's appointments. It motivates him to master the art of braiding pigtails. And it motivated him to spend a year's worth of Saturdays working on his Habitat house.

Lawton, who works for Savannah's Facilities Street Maintenance department, was introduced to Habitat when his crew worked near a Habitat build site in November 1997. Executive director Diane Cantor explained the program, and he hurried to complete his application. Once he was approved, he spent nearly every Saturday in 1998 working on his 350 sweat-equity hours.

Throughout the process, Lawton focused on his daughters and how they could benefit from the house. They are proud of the honor roll and perfect attendance certificates that hang from the walls, and they must help with the sweeping, vacuuming and dishwashing to keep the house tidy.

Though the family has lived in the house for several years, the excitement hasn't worn off yet. "When we were building on the house," Lawton says, "I brought my daughters over here one afternoon when I didn't have to work. I showed them what rooms they were going to have, and they were more excited than myself. They're still enjoying it. I told them after they get older, it's something they're going to have one day. Now they see that I'm maintaining and keeping the bills up, and they'll know how to maintain a home."

Faith in the future
Boris Henderson had charted a collision course with failure. Growing up in a bad neighborhood in Charlotte, N.C., he resented education, struggled with a speech impediment and made role models of the drug dealers and hustlers he saw in the streets.

The change that occurred in his life when his family moved into a Habitat house was profound. His grades improved from D's and F's to A's and B's, and he later went on to graduate from Davidson College. In a letter to Habitat, he expressed the significance of his Habitat house in changing his priorities:

"Sometime in the spring of 1991 my family and I moved from one of the worst neighborhoods in Charlotte to an area right off of Davidson Street-it is now called Optimist Park. We were one of the families fortunate enough to gain homeownership by purchasing a home built by Habitat for Humanity. ...I often reflect on my life to determine exactly what caused me to aim for the stars rather than fall prey to poverty, hopelessness and a cantankerous disposition. Each time, I re-remember how living in a home actually changed my attitude and self-concept. Rather than looking to become a hustler and drug dealer, I focused on going to college and making a difference in my community."


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