The completed Thrivent Builds 2008 house.








Home Dedication

When plans for the home dedication were set, homebuyer Tanisha shared this: "You can't know what all this means to me because it is just so overwhelming. It feels almost like goodness has wrapped itself around me!" (At left, her sons try out their new closet.)

At right, volunteers who helped build the home pose with the new homeowner family. Eastern Wake News covered the event. This house also is one of 300 per year that Thrivent Financial for Lutherans is sponsoring with a $105 million three-year commitment to Habitat for Humanity International, said David Calloway, a financial consultant at Thrivent’s Raleigh office. About 200 volunteers from Lutheran churches in Wake County helped build the house. "People will say ‘I put in that window or that door," Calloway told Eastern Wake News.

Read more in Habitat home in Knightdale dedicated , the Eastern Wake News story and photo by Denise Sherman.


Thrivent Builds 2008

With a four-year $105 million commitment to sponsor homes, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans is Habitat for Humanity International's largest financial ally to help increase the non-profit housing ministry's home building production. 2008 marks the third year of the Thrivent Builds project and the second year that Habitat Wake is participating.

The national Thrivent Builds project is an exciting opportunity for all area Lutheran churches to come together in fellowship and stewardship to provide housing for a local family in need. All who are affiliated with one of the Lutheran churches or who are Thrivent members (and who are at least 16 years old) are welcome and encouraged to volunteer on a Saturday construction day. No experience is necessary. Habitat Wake provides the training and tools.

Congregations with members participating in the Thrivent Builds 2008 projects:

Please contact your church's Congregational Habitat Coordinator (via your church's social outreach ministry program) to learn about plans for 2008. Congregational Habitat Coordinators from each church who'd like to put together a work party for your church, please contact Jim McDonald--one of the Lutheran Coalition project leaders--at rtpjim@aol.com or 303-0294 to begin the planning.

Nights at the Ballparks

On June 14 about a dozen baseball (and Habitat Wake) fans enjoyed fun, food & fellowship at the Mudcats game. More fans went to the July 12 Durham Bulls game.

These summer outings raised $2,900 for the Thrivent Builds project. Best of all, these outings brought families together to enjoy some evening baseball after a hot day on the build site.

Groundbreaking

A few dozen volunteers joined the prospective homeowner on Saturday, April 26 to break ground on the build site. Eastern Wake News covered the event. (Read the story or see a brief video.) Eastern Wake News story and photo by Denise Sherman.


Construction

Volunteers from Abiding Presence & St. Philip
built the first walls on Saturday, May 3.
photos by Wayne Cornelius













Volunteers from Christ the King & Grace Lutheran
installed windows on Saturday, June 7.
photos by Wayne Cornelius

Volunteers hung siding, smoothed interior walls and painted on Saturday, August 10.
photos by Caroline Cate



















Thrivent Builds 2007: The First Year in Wake County

In 2007, Habitat Wake was selected for the affiliate's first year in the national home-building alliance Thrivent Builds. The effort built homes in partnership with 355 American families. Locally, a coalition of Lutheran churches that enjoyed its first build with Habitat Wake in early 2007, joined the efforts with the Capital Area Chapter of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans to raise money and recruit construction volunteers. Read more.