What is Habitat? - Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity:
What is Habitat?
Open AllClose All- Q: What is Habitat for Humanity International?
- A: Habitat for Humanity International is a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry. HFHI seeks to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action. Habitat invites people of all backgrounds, races and religions to build houses together in partnership with families in need. Habitat has built more than 500,000 houses around the world, providing more than 2 million people with safe, decent, affordable shelter. HFHI was founded in 1976 by Millard Fuller along with his wife, Linda.
- Q: How does it work?
- A: Through volunteer labor and donations of money and materials, Habitat builds and rehabilitates simple, decent houses with the help of the homeowner (partner) families. Habitat houses are sold to partner families at no profit and financed with affordable loans. The homeowners’ monthly mortgage payments are used to build still more Habitat houses. Habitat is not a giveaway program. In addition to a down payment and the monthly mortgage payments, homeowners invest hundreds of hours of their own labor—sweat equity—into building their Habitat house and the houses of others.
- Q: What are Habitat affiliates?
- A: Affiliates are community-level Habitat offices that act in partnership with and on behalf of HFHI. Each affiliate coordinates all aspects of Habitat homebuilding in its local area. Habitat for Humanity International’s operational headquarters, located in Americus, Georgia, USA, and its administrative headquarters, located in Atlanta, Georgia, provide information, training and a variety of other support services to Habitat affiliates worldwide. All Habitat affiliates are asked to "tithe"—to give 10 percent of their contributions to fund house-building work in other nations. Tithing provides much-needed funds for international building, and it also gives affiliates the opportunity to demonstrate the spirit of Christian partnership. In 2001, U.S. affiliates tithed $9.04 million to support Habitat’s work overseas. Some affiliates in developing countries also receive funding grants from Habitat for Humanity International.
- Q: Where does Habitat for Humanity operate?
- A: Habitat is a worldwide, grassroots movement. Habitat has a presence in more than 90 countries, including all 50 states of the United States, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico.
- Q: How are the partner families selected?
- A: Families in need of decent shelter apply to local Habitat affiliates. The affiliate’s family selection committee chooses homeowners based on their level of need, their willingness to become partners in the program and their ability to repay the loan. Every affiliate follows a nondiscriminatory policy of family selection. Neither race nor religion is a factor in choosing the families who receive Habitat houses. If your family, or a family you know, is in need of decent, affordable housing, contact the Habitat affiliate nearest you. If you're not sure where a local Habitat affiliate might be, visit Habitat's website to find the names and phone numbers of affiliates in your area, or contact the Habitat help line at 800-422-4828, ext. 2551 or 2552. Your local affiliate can give you information on the availability, size, costs and sweat-equity requirements for Habitat houses in your area, as well as information on the application process.
- Q: How are donations distributed and used?
- A: Donations, whether to a local Habitat affiliate or to HFHI, are used as designated by the donor. Gifts received by HFHI that are designated to a specific affiliate or building project are forwarded to that affiliate or project. Undesignated gifts are used where most needed and for administrative expenses. HFHI’s most recent audited financial statement is available online.
- Q: Who controls and manages Habitat for Humanity International?
- A: An ecumenical, international board of directors determines policy and oversees and guides the mission of Habitat for Humanity International. Board members are dedicated volunteers who are deeply concerned about the problems of poverty housing around the world. The HFHI headquarters office operates with an administrative staff, assisted by a core group of professional and support employees and supplemented by long-term and short-term volunteers. Each Habitat for Humanity affiliate is managed by its own local volunteer board.
- Q: How does Habitat work with the government?
- A: Habitat realizes that local and national partnerships with governments are important in creating affordable housing. Habitat accepts government funds for infrastructure, utilities, capacity building or training, and house building, so long as the funds have no conditions that would violate Habitat’s principles or limit its ability to proclaim its Christian identity.
- Q: How does a Habitat for Humanity affiliate get started?
- A: Habitat affiliates start when concerned citizens of diverse backgrounds come together to address the problem of poverty housing in their community. These volunteers research the community’s affordable housing needs and resources, and evaluate the potential success of Habitat’s self-help model in their community. The group then applies to HFHI to become an official Habitat affiliate. If you are interested in eliminating poverty housing in your community, please contact HFHI headquarters for information on establishing a Habitat affiliate. Persons calling from inside the United States can call (800) HABITAT or (800) 422-4828. Those calling from outside the United States may contact HFHI headquarters at 01-229-924-6935.
- Q: How can I get more information?
- A: For additional information, write or phone: Habitat for Humanity International 121 Habitat Street Americus, GA 31709-3498 U.S.A. 229-924-6935 Contact Habitat for Humanity International
'via Blog this'
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Thrivent Financial commits $9.2 million to Habitat for Humanity
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ total contributions to Habitat over seven years exceed $160 million
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans announced that in 2012 it will fund the construction and rehabilitation of 142 Habitat for Humanity homes in 32 U.S. states through a $9.2 million contribution. Thrivent Financial’s total seven-year support of Habitat for Humanity, helping families achieve the dream of homeownership, will surpass $160 million in 2012. |
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GJ - Remember that $160 million figure when your congregation gets a check for $136.44 for sponsoring a Thrivent Branch #234 Junk for Jesus rummage sale, putting a Thrivent PR ad in the newsletter and bulletin.
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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "What is Habitat? - Thrivent Builds with Habitat fo...":
Thrivent is using (W)ELS, LCMS and ELCA money to advance the United Nations New World Order religion under the United Religions Initiative.
MONEY & SOUL. In our culture, more of anything and everything is considered better. Join us for a provocative evening of re-examining our relationship to money. Lynne Twist, Author of The Soul of Money and Founder of The Pachamama Alliance will join in conversation with Charles Gibbs, Executive Director of URI. Lynne Twist's extensive work as a worldwide fundraiser offers unique perspectives on the purpose of money and its use in the community. When infused with expressions of our heart and soul, our money and its use can become a truly meaningful part of our lives and communities. Lynne & Charles will discuss the intersection of money and spirit as a rich and fertile place, suggesting new ways for giving and receiving money in the social-profit arena. Dessert, coffee and tea will follow. Tuesday, September 13, 2011, 7:00 - 9:00 pm, Presidio Main Post Interfaith Chapel. RSVP to Erica Ernst at ebernst.sfic@gmail.com or call (415) 474 - 1321 $20 Suggested Donation Sponsored by: Interfaith Center at the Presidio The Presidio Trust San Francisco Interfaith Council Thrivent Financial for Lutherans United Religions Initiative
http://www.interfaith-presidio.org/BAIC/baic11.htm
United Religions Initiative (URI) is a satanic binding of all world religions into one mandatory religion.
URI was started by Episcopal bishop Swing:
The Right Rev. William E. Swing
URI Founding Trustee
San Francisco, CA, USA.
Bishop William Swing is the President and Founder of the URI. Bishop Swing had the original vision of URI in 1993 in response to an invitation from the United Nations which asked him to host an interfaith service honoring the 50th anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter.
For a thorough review of the satanic New World Religion which Thrivent and the Lutheran Synods are creating:
http://www.green-agenda.com/unitedfaith.html
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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "What is Habitat? - Thrivent Builds with Habitat fo...":
Bishop Swing promotes the same transformational religion as the New Age Emergent leaders in the Lutheran Synods. (Why not, since Thrivent is leading the eager Lutherans by the nose - Change or Die)
As suggested by Swing, the United Religions Initiative is intended to be to religion what the United Nations has become to global politics, unifying the world’s religions as the UN is unifying the world’s nations. Bishop Swing confirmed these plans, "The URI will be a spiritual United Nations. And what better place to give it birth than the Bay Area, which gave birth to the present UN."
Bishop Swing also states, "The URI will offer the world a powerful new vision of hope - the vision that the deepest stories we know can now cease to be causes of separation between people, and become instead the foundation for a reunited humanity. Religions need the URI. Bombs are exploding in the name of God in cities throughout the world, religious persecution is more prevalent now than ever before, religious extremists are demanding and obtaining nuclear weapons, and still there is no neutral arena where all of the religions can engage each other. The URI, in time, aspires to have the visibility and stature of the United Nations. It will have global visibility and will be a vital presence in local communities all over the world."
The United Nations has granted the URI official ‘liaison status’, which means that in return for UN financial support the URI will “co-operate closely with the U.N. and its organisations to complement the U.N.’s political, diplomatic and social mandates, influence U.N. policy and support its programs.” At a recent UN-sponsored Interfaith Conference, Bishop Swing issued a challenge for a new global civilisation, “We stand on the threshold of a new world order that may be defined either by an increasing polarisation that fuels a spiral of escalating conflict and violence, or by growing global cooperation that calls the human race to work across national, ethnic and religious boundaries to serve a larger global good.”
Bishop Swing recently apologised for two millennia of Christian evangelism. His apology not limited to ‘religious violence’ committed by Christians, it also includes regret for "proclaiming that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior of all" and for seeking "to make the whole world Christian". The URI strongly condemns all forms of religious fundamentalism; in fact the need for a new spirituality is often based on the intolerant attitude of evangelical Christians and radical Muslims’. Swing states “Because some day, the ascendancy of militant fundamentalist voices of politically aspiring religions might be so pervasive that a United Religions will need to be created in order to save religions from these fundamentalists.”
The URI arose out of, and is the culmination of, the interfaith movement that began with the 1893 Parliament of World Religions. It is inextricably tied to the quest for a new spirituality that would unify the planet in a ‘transformed global society’. The URI is the fullest expression of this movement now. The current model of unity in diversity will characterise the United Religions Initiative for a while. However, the final phase of the Global Green Spiritual Agenda will be the "full end to the great heresy of separateness."
The final green religion will be the blending of all religions into one unified expression of spirituality based on reverence for our shared planet and human interconnectedness with all living beings. No doubt anyone one who refuses to accept this new spirituality will be labelled an intolerant radical fundamentalist. In the wake of an earth-shattering crisis, such as the one described in A United World, ‘fundamentalists’ are likely to be blamed for all the world’s problems. A new world religion, in addition to a new world order, will be gratefully received by most given a crisis of sufficient magnitude.
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Jimmy James has left a new comment on your post "Spare Me the Hosannas about Harrison Testifying in...":
Let us not forget Thrivent's ties to Planned Parenthood!
Karoline “Kari” Gittus, Thrivent - Dakota Valley Board Member, proudly displays as her "Benevolent Interests and Personal Passions": PLANNED PARENTHOOD!
http://www.lutheransonline.com/servlet/lo_ProcServ/dbpage=page&mode=display&gid=20101264872858903701111555&pg=20101264872865637701111555
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Goodsoil, LNCA, and Thrivent
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California wrote:
Brett Meyer does a good job of putting into perspective the New World Religion Agenda which Thrivent and Lutheran Synods are creating. His account of UN complicity it well taken. Commenting that "Thrivent is leading the eager Lutherans by the nose--Change or Die", it should be recognized that the "leading" is finding followers of a well tilled mind set in WELS which has been prepared for thirty five years to think favorably of the UN.
A letter to the editor in Christian News (January 3, 1977) documented from The Lutheran Educator (December 1972-page 16) "UNESCO's being recommended as a good source for social studies material". The letter documented thirteen signs of beginnings of Humanism in WELS. In a subsequent letter in Christian News, the writer of the original letter was taken to task by Prof. Joel Gerlach of WELS Seminary, as espousing "invalid conclusions". The groundwork has been laid for decades to accommodate UN agenda while warnings were rebuffed.
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| ChurchMouse is one of the few bloggers who is willing to address these issues. He has two links on the left: one solo and one joint effort. |
churchmousec (http://churchmousec.wordpress.com/) has left a new comment on your post "What is Habitat? - Thrivent Builds with Habitat fo...":
Hello, everyone!
We're so Neanderthal in not climbing on board here! ;)
The line about UNESCO reminded me of my schooldays, when the UN popped up frequently in social studies class. The nuns loved it: 'This is about the UN, boys and girls -- the United Nations!'
As one lay teacher explained to me a couple of years ago: 'We didn't know then; it was all new and exciting.' She's such a good person (and conservative), as were the nuns (tho less conservative), but I think of all the thousands of kids they taught and how most of us hung on every word.
UN = a lot of good work for humanity.
We also all had the UNICEF trick or treat boxes for Hallowe'en (back in the late 1960s). Did we use them and hand them back in the next day with lots of loose change we'd collected? Yes. 'We didn't know then; it was all new and exciting.'
About Pachamama, I wrote a post on this last year which briefly addresses the business, religious and social aspects of this goddess's movement:
http://churchmousec.wordpress.com/2011/05/03/the-church-of-gaia-where-pachamama-and-industry-meet/
As for the religious bit, you'll see Roman Catholic nuns, Fordham University and Augsburg Fortress are waxing lyrical.
Also, Bron Taylor -- with an MA in Religious Ethics from Fuller (he teaches Religion and Nature at the University of Florida) says:
'a terrapolitan earth religion (or civil earth religion) is beginning to emerge, which is promoting kinship ethics ...'
(More at the link.)
Churchmouse
