Habitat for Humanity is unashamedly a Christian ministry that builds houses as a witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we trace the original vision for the Habitat ministry, we find our principles deeply rooted in the life and teachings of Jesus.
It is through the life of Jesus that we understand how God wishes to be known to us. What we see in Jesus is the clearest representation of God's own heart. The way of God is offering a helping hand and showing mercy. Jesus showed us how to extend hospitality to the stranger as he lived a life that demonstrated compassion for all.
Building homes with people in need is our response to God's love. When we are filled with the power of God's love and mercy, our hearts seek ways in which we can share that love with others. We become willing servants, attempting to model the life and teachings of Jesus by helping our neighbors in need.
Habitat provides a unique way to do just that. The Habitat " business plan" is a stroke of genius. It is not a give-away program. We raise the money for the materials and provide the labor to build the homes. The homeowner then pays a monthly mortgage payment to Habitat that is used to buy and develop land and to fund the building of more Habitat homes.
Habitat homeowners will work 100 hours building their home, 100 hours building other Habitat homes and are required to attend many hours of classroom instruction on topics such as home maintenance, financial management, career advancement, child development,etc.
10% of our sponsor fee is tithed to Habitat International to build homes around the globe. For example, Mt Bethel's tithe for each of our Habitat homes would fund the building four homes in Ghana.
Cobb Habitat is in the top 20 of Habitat International's 1600+ affiliates. Mt Bethel is Cobb Habitat's #1 sponsor, building about 10% of all Habitat homes built in Cobb County. Mt Bethel will build one or two Habitat homes in 2008, depending upon the success of our fundraising and the proceeds of the Framing the Future Road Race that will take place Oct 4, 2008.
Watch the church bulletin for build date announcements. We need volunteers to build the homes, groups and/or individuals to provide lunches for the workers, volunteers and participants for the road race, and most of all, your prayers and support.
The build is on for Spring 2008! Build dates are Saturday, March 1 through Saturday, March 29.
