Habitat Wake Happenings

Tomorrow, Norma Smith is retiring after serving 16 years with Habitat Wake.  Norma is Habitat Wake’s longest tenured staff member in our history.   Thousands of volunteers from near and far have interacted with Norma over the years and have been greeted by her as they came out to volunteer.  I always tell our staff that we are here to set the stage and enable the work of volunteers.   Norma’s work embodied that.  Everyone is welcome and everyone has something to give.

I hate it when I have to miss a house dedication.  They are such beautiful celebrations of an act that provides a life changing opportunity.  Last Saturday, I had a family graduation celebration in Virginia and I was unable to attend the dedication of our most recently completed home in Augusta Crossings.  I reached out by e-mail to our homebuyer partner, Ty, to tell her I was sorry to miss her big day.

Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”     Matthew 21:21-22

Professional builders would rather build than talk, so in that spirit, I’ll keep this short.  Thanks to Savvy Homes, Regency Centers, A.R. Nix Construction, Williams Realty & Building, and the Triangle Builders Guild for showing up with their subcontractors and suppliers last week on our sites in Augusta Crossings in Raleigh and leaving the week with four completed and beautiful homes.  Several other companies also  participated by supporting all 4 homes:  Stock Building Supply, PlyGem, and Baker Roofing.

At a recent house dedication in Augusta Crossings, Pastor J. Vincent Terry of SE Raleigh’s Mount Peace Baptist Church shared with us a quote that really spoke volumes to me:

“We all drink from wells that we did not dig and we eat fruit from vines we did not plant.”

This past Saturday, I made an early trip out to our Morrisville site to congratulate our newest home buyer, Amy on the completion of her home.  I couldn't stay for the house dedication that morning because we had five other dedications happening across town in East Raleigh.  Nice problem to have.

"For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them."

Matthew 18:20

Last week, Habitat Wake closed on a partially-developed subdivision near the historic section of downtown Apex that we will complete and provide homes there for 16 families. Habitat Wake has not built in Apex since 1990. Wake County government has provided the funds for acquisition of the property and completion of the infrastructure.

Heather and her family moved into a Habitat house in Wake County 16 years ago.  Heather was 10 then.  Today, Heather serves on staff at Durham Habitat as their volunteer services manager, coordinating the thousands of volunteers for their program.