On the road (and off) again

We just got home from a week long trip to Americus. We drove this time—1500 miles each way—so that we could bring some things from Colorado for our Georgia home. Sheilla, who has a natural decorating sense, wanted to civilize the place as well, and did an outstanding job with limited resources. We lived in Americus in the 90s and truly enjoyed our Southern experience. We made a lot of friends there—many are gone now, but those that remain are welcoming us back home.

We’d forgotten about the climatic challenges. It was in the high 90s all week with humidity in the same range. They now have what they call the heat index (sort of a chill factor in reverse) that made things seem worse. When we got back to Colorado Springs a storm blew through and lowered the outside temperature to 57°! Sometimes I feel like I live in parallel universes.

We had a good week. I always enjoy my time in the Americus office. The staff is motivated and energizing and we always come up with a slew of new ideas. The staff picture above was taken last week. Sharon Tarver is missing—she’s been through a courageous battle against breast cancer over the past year—and she’s winning! Going through this with her and watching her faith give her strength has been inspiring to all of us at The Fuller Center.

One of the highlights of the trip happened on our way home. We stopped in McDonough where The Fuller Center of Greater Atlanta was hosting 120 student volunteers who were spending the weekend helping rehabilitate 16 homes. They are part of the River of Life Program of the United Methodist Church’s North Georgia Conference. It was great spending some time with these kids and the homeowners. They let me up on the roof of Miss Lillie Miller’s house to pound a nail or two. I don’t get to do that very often and it was a treat. I’m proud to say that there were no injuries as a result of my engagement on that roof.

Miss Lillie lives in a house that was built about 60 years ago and she’s lived there for 54 of them. The house is solid but needs work. Some of the floors are giving out and the roof leaks. But soon she’ll have a restored home where she can live with dignity and comfort. And, through the Greater Blessing Program, she’ll have the chance to share her blessing with others as all of the payments she makes will be gifts that will help another family have a restored home as well. Mark Galey and his team at the Atlanta Fuller Center deserve a tip of the hat for putting this great event together.

These are exciting times for The Fuller Center for Housing. A Global Builders team led by Millard and Linda’s daughter in law and Fuller Center Board member Dianne Fuller just returned from El Salvador. Other GB teams are getting ready to head off for Armenia, Peru and Nigeria. Next week the Bicycle Adventurers will set off from Benton Harbor, Michigan, on their 1300 mile trek to the Florida Gulf coast. And building projects are underway all around the world. It’s a great time to be a part of this ministry.

It’s good to be home, though now I have the mixed blessing of having homes in two very distinct parts of the country. But as they say, home is where the heart is, so I’m almost always at home.

Little Miss Madeline

It’s been a somber day in the Snell household. Our old dog Madeline is nearing the end of her trail and we thought this might be the day we had to say goodbye. We took her to the vet who did all manner of tests. It turns out that there’s a tumor growing inside her but Madeline is 13 now, 75 in people years, and a little too old and too frail to safely go through surgery. The vet thinks that she has some time left, though, and gave her some pills to see if we can buy her a few more months of happy life.

Madeline came to live with us in 1996. We were building a Christmas house in De Soto that year, and I went out on a Saturday to check on progress. There were several dogs out there, but one clearly didn’t belong. She looked like a cross between a Dalmatian and a hound, which, it turns out, she was, and she was just too refined, too regal, for life in the woods. She was thin, wounded and incredibly sad, so I decided to bring her back to Americus to find a good home for her.

When I got to the house we took the poor thing right into the back yard. She was covered with fleas and we didn’t know what else. Our own dog thought that this was a curious event, but he’d grown accustomed to curious events in our lives, so he sniffed her a time or two and went off to take a nap.

We were going out that evening, so we left some food and water in the yard and went on our way. We got back home to find the little dog curled up on a lawn chair. When she saw that we’d actually come back to her she got a look of such profound gratitude that she worked her way right into our hearts and found herself a new home. We called her Madeline because—well I’m not sure why, it just seemed right.

I don’t know what Madeline’s life was like before she came to live with us, but I get indications that it might have been rough. She’s terrified of spraying water and goes into meltdown when the smoke detector goes off. I know that her time in the woods convinced her that food is a scarce commodity and that just about anything organic should be consumed as soon as it’s detected. She’s the only dog I’ve met that begs for lettuce, carrots and potato slices. It makes entertaining difficult—her table manners are under-developed and despite her regal bearing she is an inveterate beggar.

But she’s had a good life at our house, and she may be the sweetest animal I’ve ever known. She’s incredibly gentle and very kind. I’d like to be more like her. When I come home from my travels, and I come home from travels more than most folks, she greets me with whimpers of joy. Her tail, which wags most all of the time she’s awake, beats so hard during these reunions that small children have to be kept at bay.

So we’re entering a new phase in our lives together. We don’t know how much time Madeline has left, but our goal will be to use that time to show her that we love her as much as she loves us. I’m convinced that God gave us dogs to show us what love is all about. I’m also one who believes that their good service will be rewarded in heaven, so when the time does come that we have to bid Madeline farewell I’ll have the comfort of knowing that we will meet again.

The fine art of giving

This was a great day. I was the speaker at the Kingdom Building Conference held by the Good News Ministries church here in Americus. This is a small church that has given money to sponsor a house for five years now, the most recent two or three in Nigeria. I’m working on their pastor, Bishop Wallace, to go there with a Global Builders work team (the first GB trip to Nigeria will happen this summer).

I spoke a good deal about Africa, a place that has become dear to my heart. I never had much interest in traveling there, but since my first trip three years ago I’ve gotten hooked. I hope to travel back to the Congos later this summer. It’s a compelling place.

Most of my talk was about the fine art of giving. This is something that has been on my mind a lot lately. We periodically get asked about why we have the beneficiary families help with the construction and then pay for the house. Some feel this isn’t quite Christian.

I don’t think that way. There are times, surely, when people need to be outright given something—after natural disasters, for example. But I’ve come to believe that outright giving is generally not respectful of the recipient of the gift.

Let me explain. In any giving circumstance there are two parties, the giver and the receiver. By definition the giver has more than the receiver, which is why he or she is in a position to give. But living, as we do, in a world where a person’s value is too much tied to material success, a giving situation places the giver above the receiver. Most of the families we build with have been pretty well beaten down by life; they know that they somehow rank lower on some scale than those who give to them. And it is in this that outright giving works to the detriment of the recipient. This sort of giving seems to affirm the lower status of the recipient and denies dignity.

For a better way we only need to look to the ministry of Jesus Christ. Repeatedly He was called on to heal the lame, the blind, and the infirm. Not once, though, did He take personal credit for the gift He had given. In every case He follows the healing by the words, “Your faith has made you whole”. In every case He not only heals the infirmity, He restores dignity to the previously infirm. It is astounding, really, that this man, who stood above all other men, would ascribe His gift to the one who received it.

This is the model we seek to follow at The Fuller Center for Housing. We aren’t lifting people out of poverty housing; we’re providing them with the tools to lift themselves out. By helping to build their house the family learns that they can do what they didn’t know they could do. By paying for the house the family moves from being receivers to being donors. Their payment help build houses for other families in need. What a great concept!

So the good folks at Good News Ministries know that they are giving artfully, they are giving in a way that will build dignity, not diminish it. They are true partners in this important work.

Back to El Salvador

I’m on the road again, back to El Salvador. This trip wasn’t really planned, but as events unfold in our lives we have to move to meet them. The reason for this trip is pretty interesting. You may have gotten a preview if you watch the Today show or Larry King Live.


Mike Bonderer is our man on the ground here and he is an aggressive advocate of the work in El Salvador, always looking for ways to bring attention to it. In pursuit of this he was able to connect with former NC senator John Edwards and has, over the last couple of months, had a number of conversations with him about our work generally and the El Salvador project. Edward’s interest was piqued, so he decided to travel down to check things out for himself. It seemed like a good time for me to stop in as well to see if there were ways that the Fuller Center and the Edwards could be helpful to one another.

It’s been a tough couple of years for John and Elizabeth. Everybody knows the story, or at least what we see in the papers. But everyone doesn’t know John Edwards, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to get the measure of the man. I can report from the front lines that he is a decent guy, he has a great heart for the poor, he’s tremendously well connected, and he and Elizabeth want to do good. Seems like a perfect match for Fuller Center.

We’ve already taken a little heat for this. There are some strong feelings out there. But we see an opportunity, and figure if we weren’t taking a little flak we probably wouldn’t be living close enough to the edge. Those who know Millard and Linda’s history understand that if it weren’t for the domestic crisis that they had to work through Habitat for Humanity and subsequently The Fuller Center would never have been born. We’re content to leave the judging up to the Lord and just try to thoughtfully take advantage of the blessing He sends us, sometimes through mysterious means.

We’ve had a full week in two days. Senator Edwards is known here in El Salvador and so we’ve had meetings with some key government leaders—the Presidents of the Supreme Court and the Legislative Assembly among them. Last night we had dinner with members of the presidential transition team. Elections this spring turned the presidency over to the liberal FMLN party from the conservative ARENA and the new president takes office on June 1. ARENA has been in power for 20 years, so this is a significant change. We may be able to meet with the President-Elect later today.

In these meetings the Senator has been consistent with a couple of messages: we need to maximize the opportunity presented by new administrations in Washington and San Salvador, and we need to use this opportunity to improve the plight of the poor. I’ve felt more than once like I was watching history in the making.

Today we’re going down to San Luis Talpa to turn some love into sweat. Should be a great day. I haven’t been back down there for a while, so I’m anxious to see the developments. The sewing machines are in for the Many Miracles project, which will turn the women on SLT into entrepreneurs. I understand we’re still having a little trouble getting the power and light company to get us up to speed, so there’s not much sewing happening yet. But they are training on the equipment so things should take off soon. I’ll report in on developments.

I live a life of amazement these days, watching this ministry unfold. I’m convinced that the Lord is rooting for our success. Otherwise He wouldn’t be sending so many blessings our way. We are on an interesting journey.

A Thing of Beauty. . .

I read myself to sleep at night—something I’ve been doing for years. Most of the books are pure escape. It’s a little refuge I’ve created from the realities I face during the day. I just finished one called An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England. I confess that I picked it up for the title, which you have to admit is compelling. I’m a sucker for guidebooks anyway—I spent a fair amount of time with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy years ago and my den has become a veritable Lonely Planet reading room. So I guess it make sense that An Arsonist’s Guide would catch my eye.

It wasn’t a bad read. I’m struggling to get its message—sometimes our personal set of life experiences just doesn’t go far enough to help us understand those of others. But there was one line in the book that spoke loudly to me, so much so that I actually turned down the corner of the page—something I haven’t done since Mrs. Briscoe sternly counseled me against such behavior in the third grade.

The narrator has just come through a storybook part of New Hampshire, with white clapboard churches and a gentle snow mantling the mountainsides and into an area of extreme poverty. The perfect little houses have given way to rusted out trailer parks and the kind of neighborhoods that we at The Fuller Center for Housing have set out to fix. The beauty he’d so recently passed through is forgotten, and he says, “This is what poverty does, I guess: it ruins your memory of more beautiful things, which is just another reason why we should try as hard as we can to get rid of it.”

What a great line, and how utterly on point. I’ve spent a good deal of my adult life working in areas of poverty, both here and abroad. The one thing that is universally absent in these places is beauty. Poverty doesn’t just rob the memory of beautiful things, it denies access to them. And that is a true disservice, because there is so much beauty in the world that it’s a sad that so many never see it.

I keep my eyes open for beautiful things—a piano or violin, a painting, a little plot of flowers. But people who are truly poor, who have to worry about tomorrow’s food, or whether the roof will survive another storm, or how to keep snakes out of the house, have little time to devote to things of beauty. Poverty itself argues against beauty. Fixing this is, like so many things, easier said than done. We have to understand not just the root causes of poverty, but the affects it has on people’s dignity, sense of self worth and initiative.

Helping families get into a decent house that they actually own is a good start. Today’s Gospel reading was from John—the powerful piece where Jesus compares himself to the good shepherd. There are a couple of lines in that reading that speak to the issue at hand. I’d never realized it because the entire sermon is such a powerful discourse on love that this little piece gets lost. Jesus explains the difference between the shepherd, who has a vested interest in the sheep, and the hired hand, who does not. When the wolf comes the shepherd stays, but the hired hand flees. This shows the power of ownership, and tells us that we’re on the right track with our approach.

As we seek to build decent homes in decent communities we need to remember that including some things of beauty should be part of the process. More important is finding ways to trigger the memory of beauty so that our homeowners seek it themselves. It takes very little for people with resources to help those in need have some beauty in their lives. In our case it starts with the elegance of a well built home, and then we can add a splash of color or help plant a garden or a tree,

This whole human adventure got started in a garden, and our lives are really a quest to return to Eden. I’m hoping we can build some mile markers along that path in the communities we build—splashes of beauty that will remind us of Home.

It's the 21st Century

--and we at The Fuller Center are marching boldly into it. We were pretty proud of ourselves four years ago when we came up with our first web page and I’m still giddy about the whole blogging thing. But the world marches on. Now we have Facebook, Twitter, social networking and the unfortunately named viral marketing. In order to keep up we’ve organized our own Tech Team, with Faith, Ryan, Kirk and Erica leading the way. They let me sit in on the meetings, as long as I don’t say too much.

But I’m learning. Check this out—



This is a widget, created by our very own Ryan Iafigliola to promote his upcoming Bicycle Adventure. What’s even more remarkable is that I imported this into the blog all by myself. And they say you can’t teach old dogs new tricks.

As we learn more about the marvels of the age you’ll be seeing us communicate in more interesting ways. Our web page will be going through some major upgrades. We’re learning to be interactive. I invite you to help us with this by offering suggestions and sharing your thoughts.

Since I’ve got the Bike Adventure widget successfully imbedded here I should say a word or two about it. All of the details can be found on our web page, fullercenter.org, or on the Adventure’s own page at fullercenterbiketrip.com. This is going to be a great trip. There are 17 riders signed up for the entire tour—from Benton Harbor, Michigan to Panacea Beach, Florida, a distance of a mere 1300 miles. Riders who can’t go the whole way are invited to join the trip at any point along the way. For my part I’ve signed up for the Tallahassee to Panacea leg. They told me it was a 25 mile run when I committed, but then they changed the route and now I’m told it will be closer to 50. I don’t think there’s time for me to get this old posterior of mine in shape for that much bike time.

Do check this out. There are lots of ways to get involved beyond riding. Those living along the route may want to host the riders, offer them a home-cooked meal or lend them a washing machine. They’ll be building at Fuller Center sites along the way as well. It should be great fun. I’ll let you know for sure when we get to Panacea Beach.

Email blast-- unredacted version

I was asked to create a message for an email blast, which I dutifully did.  Turns out there's a whole science to this and, being new to such things, my message was a little difficult to cast into a good email message.  So I went through the painful process of being edited.  The results, though, were good and you may have received the blast in your email last week.  (If not, drop me a line and I'll make sure your name is added for future messages.)

I kind of liked my original message, though, so thought I take advantage of this space to post it.  It has a lot of the same information, but also a flight of fancy or two.  So here you go---

It’s springtime, and the earth on this side of the equator is starting to show signs of renewal.  I’m writing this from Colorado Springs where we celebrated Easter with four inches of new snow on the ground!  But there, by the front door, our garden of daffodils was standing in defiance of the storm with their little yellow flowers poking up through the snow.  I love these little guys—they’re always the first of nature’s gifts to announce that spring’s a’comin’ and all will be well.

We had a glorious Easter—the church was packed and the spirit was strong as we reminded ourselves of our Heavenly Father’s great gifts, not just that he gave His Son to die for our sins, but that He rose Him up to show us that there is life after death and that the reward can be ours.  Much of what we honor about Jesus’ life we share with those of other faiths—living worthy lives, loving one another, striving to be holy—but two things separate us from all other religions:  the redemption and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  What a great testament of hope this gives us.

The messages of renewal we get from the glory of Easter to the humble daffodil are especially meaningful to us here at The Fuller Center for Housing.  We suffered a tremendous loss with Millard’s passing and have had to ask ourselves what that means to us and the future of this ministry.  But just as Easter and those little flowers give us hope and promise our Covenant Partners and our supporters around the world have come forward with a unanimous voice saying this work must go on.

And so it shall.  I spent last Friday and Saturday in Indianapolis, meeting with some of the folks who are working on the Millard Fuller Legacy Build, which will be held there in 2010.  The excitement there is palpable as they begin developing their plans.  In the Chattahoochee Valley, where this year’s Legacy Build will be centered, the excitement is turning into action as plans are firmed up and volunteers begin to register.

I just got a note from Sharon McFalls, director of The Fuller Center of Spartanburg—the little Covenant Partner that could!—with updates on a dozen separate projects they are working on or just completing.  Houses are going up in Shreveport and Webster Parish LA, and Greater Blessings projects are going on at covenant partners across the country.

There’s excitement on the international front as well.  Nigeria will soon be completing their 50^th house in their Luvu project near Abuja, and work is moving forward on both sides of the Congo River as the covenant partners in Makana and Bolomba build new houses in places that have seen more than their share of tragedy.  There’s great news out of El Salvador where the Many Miracles sewing project has begun.  This will provide the women of San Luis Talpa with a real and steady income. 

So we are filled with hope in this season of renewal.  We are being blessed and those blessings tell us that we are on the right track and that we need to redouble out efforts.  We know that the best way we can honor Millard’s memory is by keeping his dream of eliminating poverty house alive. 

Of course none of this is possible without the support of friends like you.  We appreciate you interest in our work.  We have some outstanding opportunities for service, opportunities that give more than they ask for.  There’s the Legacy build this fall in Lanett AL which will use hundreds of volunteers.  We have Global Builder Work Teams forming for Armenia, Peru, Nigeria and El Salvador.  There isn’t a better way to see the world than on a Fuller Center Global Builders Trip.  And the 2009 Bicycle Adventure is coming soon.  Riders are invited to join the adventure for a day, a week or for the whole tour.  And there are always opportunities to serve in one of the ever growing list of communities with a Fuller Center Covenant Partner.  Learn more about all of this by visiting our web page, www.fullercenter.org.

And, of course, we can always use financial support.  This is a great ministry, but an expensive one.  I’ve often said that if Millard’s dream had been that all of God’s people have a decent pair of shoes we could have declared victory years ago.  Helping all of God’s people to have a decent home takes a little more work and a lot more cash.  We are grateful for the many gifts we receive and promise to use them wisely so that the funds we’re entrusted with build as many houses as possible.

God bless us now as we enter this grand season of renewal.

 

 

FCH & HFH, Different approaches, similar goals

I got to travel this last week, so I have a certifiable entry to make here. (I’ve come to consider my back-and-forth to Americus as a commute, so it doesn’t qualify as travel any more). I went to Indianapolis on Good Friday to meet with some folks. It was my first trip there and I was impressed. I was hosted by our board member, Jeff Cardwell, who is something of a local institution and seems to know just about everybody in town.

Indianapolis will host the 2010 Millard Fuller Legacy Build, and work is getting started for that big event. They plan on completing 33 units, some new, some rehab, during the Legacy Build week. 33 is the number of cars that start in the Indy 500, it’s the number of years that Jesus spent here on earth, and it’s the time Millard worked on eliminating poverty housing through Habitat and The Fuller Center. It will be one exciting project.

In my last post I said I’d work on answering the third of the major questions I’ve been asked since Millard died: “How is The Fuller Center different from Habitat for Humanity?” This is a tough one, not because the differences don’t exist, but because it’s hard to compare yourself to something else without implying a certain quality of superiority, and there’s no reason for us to do that. Almost everyone at The Fuller Center has Habitat experience in our background, and all of us have great respect for what that organization has accomplished and what it continues to do, and we pray for their continuing success.

As Habitat has grown, though, it has changed and will continue to change. It’s an inevitable feature of life, both for individuals and for corporations. The Fuller Center has moved the clock backwards, and we subscribe closely to the earliest foundational principles that got both ministries started. I like to think of us as the Old Order Habitat—we’re the ones in buggies and snoods.

Rather than line out differences between the two organizations I’ll list the basic principles that we at the Fuller Center seek to follow. (This is a preview of my article in the next FCH newsletter Building Materials, which will come out later this week. You, as a premium member of the FCH website, will get this before the rest of the world does.)

We at the Fuller Center for Housing believe that--

-- We are part of a God movement, and movements don’t just stop
-- We have been called to this housing ministry; we didn’t just stumble into it;
-- We are unashamedly Christian, and enthusiastically ecumenical;
-- We aren’t a church but we are a servant of the Church;
-- We are faith driven, knowing that after we’ve done all we can do the Lord will help finish the job—something that requires us to stretch beyond our rational reach;
-- We are a grassroots ministry, recognizing that the real work happens on the ground in communities around the world through our covenant partners, so a large, overseeing bureaucracy isn’t needed;
-- We try to follow the teachings of the Bible and believe that it says that we shouldn’t charge interest of the poor, so we don’t;
-- Government has a role in our work in helping set the stage, but that we shouldn’t look to it as a means to fund the building of homes;

These are our foundational principles and we’re sticking to them. And we know that there is plenty of need, as well as plenty of bounty, for us, Habitat and a thousand more like-minded organizations to get involved and it will still be a year or two before the work is done. We may do things a little differently; the families we serve may come from different economic situations and our funders from different parts of the charitable world, but we share the vision of eliminating poverty housing. So the differences probably don’t matter all that much.

The Fuller Center marches on, building in small towns and large, partnering with churches wherever we can, and inviting all who will join us to help eliminate poverty housing. Our goal, though, isn’t just the building of houses. We seek to build decent communities for the decent houses to be part of. We seek to raise families not just out of poverty housing, but out of poverty. We seek to make the activity of building a house an opportunity for people of all backgrounds and ideologies to come together in a common act of kindness. Every house we build is both a sermon of God’s love and a sermon of His peace. May the good Lord continue to bless our efforts.

Questions about the future

I’ve been neglecting my blog lately and I apologize for that. In my defense my life has gotten a good deal more complicated over the past few weeks. Since my last posting a number of things have happened. Most significant for me is that the board of directors has named me as the new president of The Fuller Center. I’m honored by this, but humbled. Millard was a giant of a man, and the shoes he left are too big to be filled by any single pair of feet. I’m confident, though, that with many pairs we’ll be able to do a credible job.

There are a number of questions out there about the Fuller Center and its future and my role going forward. I’m going to be taking a stab at answering some of them here. I may have to change the title of this from a Travel Blog to a Standing on the Prow Looking into the Fog Blog. But the future is bright and I’m filled with confidence about it.

As you may know I live in Colorado Springs so the first question I usually get is “When are you moving to Americus?” That’s a tough one to answer right now. Sheilla has a business here in the Springs, and we own a home here. Given the economic situation it’s probably not the best of times to try to sell either one. And then of course, there are the grandkids, Ryan and Griffin. They live with their folks in Dillon, Colorado, and one of the reasons we came back to Colorado was to be near family. The other reason is that I woke up one day and found that the department I headed at Habitat had somehow disappeared over night.

So the short answer is that we won’t be moving to Americus anytime soon. We’re going to let this play out for a while and see what the future brings. We do have a home there now—a great little apartment next door to the Presbyterian Church in the heart of the city and I’m spending a good deal of time there. One of the great blessings of these challenging times is the way technology has improved our ability to communicate over long distances, so even when I’m on the western side of the continent I can keep up with things in the east.

The second question I often get is, “Will The Fuller Center continue?” The answer to that is an unequivocal yes. There are now covenant partners in 50 US cities and 14 countries around the world, all reaching out to families who need a decent place to live. We have commitments to these groups and the families they serve. The board of directors and staff have committed to honoring Millard’s memory by aggressively pursuing his dream of eliminating poverty housing. Most encouraging is the tremendous outpouring of support we’ve received from our supporters around the world who want this ministry to grow and prosper.

The third most frequent question is how The Fuller Center differs from Habitat. This is a significant question and one that deserves its own posting. And the night is drawing nigh. I’ll cover this soon. In the meantime, thanks again to all who have been so kind and supportive during this challenging time. God bless us all.

Looking Forward

I’m heading home to Colorado, but it’s looking like I’ll be spending a little more time in Americus going forward. I like the place—Sheilla and I lived here for several years in the 90s and had a great time. It takes a little effort to get there—Americus is not on the main line—but it is worth the trip.

It’s been quite a week. The outpouring of love for Millard and Linda and their life’s work has been heartwarming and affirming. He leaves behind a great legacy. There are families living comfortably and safely in houses that he built around the world. What an estate—not a million dollars in securities, but a million people in decent homes.

We are called now to look to the future—there are millions of families out there who still need a decent place to live. About half of our board members were in town for Millard’s burial, so we were able to get together for a few minutes to talk about the future. (The picture is of all of us sitting in Millard’s home office). A few important things came out of the meeting—we had the good fortune to work with a remarkable human being, and the challenging fortune of working with an irreplaceable one; we know that we’ll have to be creative and innovative as we move ahead; and, most important, we are unanimous in our commitment to making the continuing success of The Fuller Center a tribute to Millard’s life and work.

Now we just have to figure out how we’re going to pull it off. Fortunately we have the good Lord as a partner in this work and great faith that He will help us through.

Many folks have called and written asking about a memorial service. We are working out the details and I can tell you that there will be two, the first sometime in the next few weeks in Georgia. We expect this to be a well attended event, one which will take a fair amount of preparation. We hope to announce the place and date by mid-week.

The second memorial will be on August 30 in Lanett AL, and will kick off the Legacy Build, during which 100 houses will be built around the world, including seven in the Chattahoochee Valley. This will be a great week and we urge all of our friends and supporters to be a part of it, in Alabama, at your own home town or at one of our projects around the world.

I want to take a minute to express profound gratitude to the hundreds of Millard’s friends and supporters who called, wrote and visited over the past few days. Your kindness means a great deal to Linda and the family, to our staff and board, and to me personally. Thank you. Now the time has come for us to express our appreciation for Millard’s time with us by dedicating ourselves to continuing on with his dream. We need your help.

Remembering Millard

Thursday, February 05, 2009

We buried Millard yesterday. It was a lovely service, elegant in its simplicity. There was a big crowd—Millard never met anyone who didn’t become a friend. He is resting at Koinonia Farm where his life changed dramatically so many years ago. Linda and his family were an inspiration. Faith is powerful, and their faith gave them great strength, which they shared with us all. .

Millard’s death came as a great surprise to everyone who knew him. He was always so full of life that it didn’t seem possible that he might someday die—well someday maybe, but not now. The doctors are still working on the exact cause but know that his heart failed him. Perhaps a heart as large as his just gets too hard to sustain.

Whatever the cause he is gone, and those of us that remain behind, though saddened by his loss, are grateful for the time we had with him. He was a teacher who taught by example, a preacher who preached with a hammer and saw. The gifts that contributed to his success—a keen intellect, an indomitable will and an unwavering focus on mission—made him a challenge to work with: he was always two steps ahead dreaming if the next project while the rest of us were scrambling to wrap the last one.

Of all his fine traits, though, the most empowering was his profound faith in the Lord. Millard never worried about where the money would come from for the next 100 houses—he knew that the Lord would provide. Our task was simply to do all that we could do and trust the Lord to take care of the rest.

About half of the Fuller Center Directors were here this week and we met to discuss the future. Without exception they are totally committed to making the Fuller Center for Housing a worthy tribute to Millard’s life and vision. We will carry on. The task before us is a daunting one. You don’t just replace someone like Millard. A million people will sleep tonight protected by a solid home because of the work that Millard did, but there are thousands and thousands of families waiting for us to help them have a simple, decent place to live as well. I hope you’ll join us in working to make that dream a reality.

Pyongyang Revisited (finally)

12/18/08- Thursday

Here’s an entry I started writing on Decd 18, but I needed some facts that I didn’t have at hand and put it aside. Then came Christmas and New Years and attention span deficit issues and here we are, a month later, finally getting the word out. . .

December 18, 2008—We drove into the countryside today, about an hour south of Pyongyang to a collective farm of some 1700 members who farm 900 hectares, mostly rice. The farms has been visited a number of times over the years by both leaders—Kim Jung Il was there just last week, which pretty much means he’s up and around. We toured the museum they’ve built to commemorate the Leaders’ visits and then got to visit three homes. This was something I was anxious to do—it’s one thing to look at pictures and house plans, but nothing beats getting into the actual home.

The houses were similar. Each had two or three common rooms and a kitchen. There was very little furniture—Koreans spend their leisure and sleeping time on the floor. Each was neat as a pin. The kitchen configuration is different from any I’ve seen. Each had three or four wide, shallow pots built into recesses in the floor. In front of the ‘stove’ the floor planking was loose to allow access to the fire chamber below. One of the houses cooked over wood and straw and the other two over coal. Each of the kitchens had a small methane burner that burned fuel manufactured on site from the output of the latrine and pig sty. Innovative stuff.

One of the houses was off the grid completely and relied on a small wind generator for power. There was a large battery in the house to store the power made when the wind blows. The other two houses were on the grid but kept a battery charged for outages.

Behind each house, separated by a narrow walkway, was a row of outbuildings, part of which were used to house rabbits and pigs, part for storage. At the last house we visited there were six pots buried to their necks in the ground—sure enough, it was the kim chee supply fermenting for the next season.

We had a great cultural opportunity Tuesday evening—went to a performance of the National Philharmonic. Very impressive. I was taken with the number of strings—there were dozens. Interestingly all of the musicians except for two harpists were men. But they played their hears out—Asia seems to be working hard to preserve the classical music of the West.

Everyone I met on this trip was gracious and welcoming. I’m sure they’d been prepared for the visit but don’t know who they thought I might be, but there was no question that I was a welcome guest. The more I travel the more I find that there is little that really separates us. We speak different languages and eat different foods, but there is an undeniable sense of brotherhood among us human beings that seeks friendship. This is something that happens at the individual level, but somehow gets lost when we deal with each other as groups and as nations.

The photos show a typical house, a kitchen stove and kim chee pots.

Back to El Salvador

Greetings from El Salvador. I’m on the road again. I’ve been reminded by my faithful readers, all three of them, that I’ve been derelict in my postings. They’re still waiting for the follow up report from Pyongyang, which I promise to get up quickly. I’m learning that a fundamental attribute of good blogging is a certain level of discipline. As I was born without that trait my efforts here suffer. I will try to do better.

I am in El Salvador again. I’m on the patio of the beach house we keep here for office space and volunteer lodging. There’s a breeze so it’s hard to say what the temperature is, but I’m guessing in the mid 70s. The sea is doing its rhythmic wave pounding behind me. It’s a struggle, but sacrifice is at the heart of ministry.

I’m down here to work out some legal issues that have stymied our efforts at getting the San Luis Talpa project completed. They involve the ownership of the land, but it looks like we’re got it figured out and will now be able to move quickly to get the families into their homes. The houses are all but finished, but some of the work—welding the doors into place, for example—requires good electrical power, and to get that connected we had to have clear title to the land. By getting the land issue resolved we now have that and can proceed.

The project looks great. It’s neat as a pin and will be a lovely community. I met with the new homeowners last night and, while they’re all anxious to get into the new houses, they are remarkable in their patience and understanding. The first few should be able to move in a week or two and the rest will follow quickly. I’m including some current photos of the site. The top one shows us in a community meeting, next are the new power lines and the last shows some houses.

We’ve dug a new well with better water and will be working on a tank and distribution system. Perk test have shown that we will be able to build a simpler and less costly community septic system than we originally anticipated. These two projects will take a little more time, but the families are prepared to move in with limited services just to have a solid floor and decent walls around them.

So all the hard work of the November blitz builders and the many other groups that have come to town is about to bear fruit. The families asked that I send their greetings and once again express their profound gratitude to all those who have made their dreams come true.

Back to Pyongyang

I’m in Beijing today, getting things in place for a return trip to North Korea. We’ve been invited back to continue discussions on the house building initiative there. I spent the morning getting my visa and Air Koryo tickets. I leave in tomorrow for Pyongyang and will be there until Saturday.

I’m soloing this time and getting the visa and tickets turned out to be an adventure. Last time we were with out mentor Han Park who knows the ropes. The first challenge was finding the North Korean Embassy. I checked with the concierge here at the hotel but English really is a foreign language here, and the address he came up with turned out to be for the South Korean embassy. Fortunately I had my phone and a number and the taxi driver was able to figure it out. They had cards for Air Koryo at the embassy, so we were able to find that without too much difficulty.

Everything is now arranged and I’ll be ont the 11:30 flight tomorrow for Pyongyang. I won’t be able to post to the blog while I’m there—no internet access—but will keep a daily record and put some thoughts down when I return.

This will be an important series of meetings. On the last trip we came to a general understanding on the project. This trip will begin to put some meat on the bones, talking about construction systems, materials, location, infrastructure and all the elements that will go into building a budget. One of the goals is to build houses that are highly efficient and innovative in terms of energy use. We could be on to something very interesting with this.

I’ll report back in a week.

El Salvador, the last day

The work week ended today. It was a great week. The volunteers were outstanding and the event itself was a joy. There are way too many people to thank for its success, but Mike Bonderer and Carmen Gallardo get special mention for the amazing job they did in getting the work site mobilized, tending to the volunteers and getting the houses built. Jim and Margaret Favre worked overtime to get the flight arrangements coordinated and helping keep the volunteer services afloat during the week. Holly Chapman and her team of photographers and videographers kept the world aware of what was happening in this little corner of the vineyard. And we can’t forget Trish Stoops who spent a year and a half preparing the way. Events like this don’t just happen, and we are blessed to have such dedicated staff and volunteers working quietly in the background so that the whole thing appeared seamless.

But the stars of the week were the volunteers who, after paying their way to get here, worked tirelessly and without complaint. Leaving hearth and home to spend a week in a foreign clime where the language and customs are different takes a special kind of soul. I’ve been at many builds like this, but can’t remember one that was so congenial and free of stress. It’s as though we were all specially chosen to spend a week together. Millard led the way, spending every possible minute on site, scaling the walls, laying block, and demonstrating servant leadership in action.

Of course none of this would have been possible without the sponsors. LeRoy Troyer, Bill and Mary Lou Johnson, Doug Miller, Marlene Muse's church, John Schaub, the Fuller Center Bike Adventure, Webster Parish LA Fuller Center, the Chattahoochee Valley Fuller Center Project, Patrick Gibbs, Jr., the 1st Congregational Church of Manchester VT, Jeff Cardwell & Lowell Stutzman, Tom Dineen & Jim Killoran, Linda Walker & June Ewing, Jim McLean, and Paul DiGiammarino all sponsored or co-sponsored houses for this event. A number of these folks were with us during the work week, donating sweat in addition to dollars, and ten of them are members of our Board of Directors. What a gift they’ve left behind.

There’s still some work to be done on the houses, but we expected that. The doors and windows are installed by the manufacturer and that will happen next week. The first couple of houses are ready to move into, though, so we’ll have families on site very soon. The water and sewer systems still need work, but otherwise things are in very good shape.

The families have been a joy to work with. These are people of very humble means, and work demands kept some of them away part of the time. But they were with us when they could be. There were always children around—volunteers and children seem to find one another. There were many tears and expressions of sincere gratitude during the house dedications. We built 16 houses this week, but there are 22 all together on the site and 19 families have been selected. 18 of the families were able to get time from their work to be with us for the dedications.

We ended the day with a meal and a closing ceremony. Like everything we’ve done this week it was a very personal event, with volunteers and homeowners invited to share their thoughts as the week came to an end. Time now to start getting ready for next year’s Millard and Linda Build which will take place in the Chattahoochee Valley. For my part I’m ready to get home, hug my wife, pet the dogs and get ready for the next adventure. North Korea called and wants us to come back, so I’ll wash my undies and get ready to take off again.

San Luis Talpa- Day 4

It’s Thursday evening—day four—and we’re coming into the home stretch. It’s about 6:00 in the evening here at the Estero y Mar and the sun just set over the Pacific—lovely views. The closer you get to the equator the less change there is to the length of the day as the seasons move through their cycle. The sun’s up by six in the morning and down by six at night.

We’re making great progress at the work site. The biggest concern is about the roofs, whose infrastructure requires a fair amount of welding. We’re bringing in pros for that and they’ll work through the night if they need to. By morning the rafters should be raised and the sheathing can go on. The doors and windows are installed by the manufacturers and we’ll wait until next week for that. Otherwise the houses will be pretty much done.

Reports are that yesterday, as predicted, was a little bit of a down day, but still a great deal got done. Today everyone was perkier and tomorrow I’m guessing we’ll have a lot of enthusiasm on site. We’ll wrap up tomorrow afternoon with family photos, house dedications and the giving of Bibles. Should be another great day.

Tonight we’re having a ‘lagoon-side’ chat with all of the volunteers who want to learn more about this project and about our work in other parts of the world. It’s so important that we get the word out about what we are doing and our hope is that we’ll send 100 ambassadors back to the States and Canada to help with that.

Otherwise not much to report. I’ve been here for over a week now and look forward to getting home. Time passes fast at an event like this—in many ways it seems like I just got here.

Day Three-- Tacuba!

Another great day in El Salvador. I hear that things went well at the work site, but I wasn’t there, so I can’t report. I was in the mountains today, visiting our new friends in La Concordia. This will bring the tale I started earlier about our trip to Tacuba full circle.

La Concordia is a village a few hard miles outside of Tacuba, which is ten long miles from Ahuachapán (where the little girls of the San Jose orphanage live). La Concordia is a coffee cooperative of 29 families who live in pretty primitive conditions on the side of a mountain. The power lines don’t reach there and there is no running water or sewer. I did get a pretty strong cell signal though. It’s an amazing age we live in. The cooperative has started selling their crop to our friends at Café Campesino in Americus as free traders. The coffee, incidentally, is very good.

It was through Café Campesino that we learned of La Concordia and the need there for decent shelter. Some of the houses are built of adobe brick, but most use a system called bajareque, which is a variation of daub and wattle. Bamboo lath is nailed horizontally at about 6 inch intervals on wooden posts that are driven into the ground. The space between the laths is filled with an adobe mixture that hardens in place. The roofs are generally galvanized steel. This provides for a fairly solid structure, but the adobe fill has to be replace every 4-5 years making in an incredibly labor intensive way to keep a house. The floors in most of the houses we visited were of pounded earth.

Another iffy feature of the houses is that the kitchens are indoors and the stoves burn wood but have no chimneys, creating homemade respiratory problems. It’s amazing to find technologies that are thousands of years old unchanged in today’s world, especially technologies that are clearly unhealthy.

We visited a few homes, one that was severely damaged during the rainy season when the hillside behind the house turned to mud and broke through the walls. This particular house is owned by Don Antonio and his wife. Don Antonio is 83 years old and worked actively in the coffee harvest until last spring when a falling branch caused him injuries that he hasn’t yet recovered from.

After the visit to La Concordia we returned to Tacuba and met with the cooperative’s board of directors. Despite their poverty these guys think like businessmen and their questions were insightful. The situation there is similar to one that we face in other places—replacing a standing house with a more solid one of similar size would be unaffordable. One of the options we discussed was building a much smaller unit that could serve as a kitchen and storehouse that could be attached to the existing structure. This would allow us to address some of the health and safety issues while still providing them with a more comfortably sized, and affordable, home. They’re going to be meeting to discuss options and come up with some ideas on what they’d like to see. In the meantime we’ll develop some house plans and cost them out.

After the meeting we were treated to a delicious bean and rice soup and fresh tortillas. The tortillas here are different from the ones in Mexico—they’re only about four inches in diameter and much thicker—more like gorditas. But they are very good.

After lunch we headed back to Ahuachapán and visited the orphanage. That’s always a treat. The girls there are between three and twelve and they are full of life and love. The sisters take excellent care of them, giving them the closest thing they could have to a good home. Many of the girls have been taken from an abusive family situation and are experiencing a loving environment for the first time. We dropped off some yarn for the crafts class and got treated to freshly baked cakes and rolls from the girls’ home ec kitchen. Despite the inherent sadness of a place like San Jose I always leave there feeling a little better about life.

We got back to La Libertad at about 5—too late to go the work site. So for the first time since I got here I went a day without visiting San Luis Talpa. I’ll fix that tomorrow. (The photo is of the kitchen in Don Antonio's house.)

A good day at the work site. These events have their own rhythm—Mondays are pure excitement and adrenalin, Tuesdays are enthusiastic but a little more restrained. Wednesday’s tend to be like hump days everywhere—people are tired and a little grumpy. I won’t be able to report on that because I’m heading up to Tacuba and Ahuachapán tomorrow. I didn’t plan the trip to avoid the grumpies, but figure I can be grumpy on my own with less damage than if I’m with a crowd. Thursday people start thinking in terms of deadlines and a sense of urgency sets in. And Fridays are either manic or subdued depending on where the construction is at. I’m figuring this will be a gentle Friday based on the amazing amount of work that’s been done so far.

By the end of the day today most of the walls were raised to top of the gable ends. Tomorrow we’ll get all of the houses up to speed and then start working on the roofs. That’s a little more complicated than laying block—the beams and purlins are metal as is the sheathing, so there’s welding to be done. These houses are well ventilated and even at mid day the roof keeps the heat away.

The volunteers are doing well. We’ve had a cut finger or two and a few folks have had some tummy upset, but generally all are well. I’ve been through a fair number of blitz builds over the years and this one is by far and away the least stressful. Maybe it’s the coastal breeze, maybe it’s the gentle Salvadoran culture, maybe I’m just getting old. It is nice, though, to go the worksite and feel a sense of calm.

Tomorrow I’m going up to visit with the coffee growers at La Concordia, just outside of Tacuba. Now that I know the way the travel part of the trip should be uneventful. It looks like there will be five of us in my rented Toyota Yaris. I’ll be in the driver’s seat, so should experience too much discomfort. We’ll stop at the orphanage in Ahuachapán—our friend Kathy Read has sent another supply of yarn for the girls to work with. I should get back to the site with enough daylight to get an update out tomorrow.

The photos are the same ones as yesterday, a day later.

El Salvador Work Week-- Day One

We are underway! We had a great kickoff last night. Most of the partner families joined us for dinner at the Estero y Mar, where we were welcomed by the mayor of San Luis Talpa, Johalmo Varela—El Tito—and long time Fuller friend Ildeko Tesak. We spent some time talking about the week and getting to know one another, and called it an early night so that everyone would be well rested for the work to come.

We got off to an gentle start today—the buses picked everyone up at 7:30 and we got things underway, after a few fits and starts, at about 8:15. John Schaub led us in devotions, we gave out house assignments, and everyone went to work. By the blitz build standard many of us have come to know this event is a little, shall we say, organic. We’re shooting from the hip, as it were, but with amazing accuracy. The first day has gone very well—the volunteers are full of spit and vinegar and raring to go. The pre-builders were so enthusiastic that there was some concern at the beginning of the day that we’d get the houses built too quickly. After 8 hours of toting block and mixing mud most folks will be happy with the gentler pace that the solid prep work will allow. The amazing thing is how everything has come together—just like we’d planned, of course.

The houses are almost raised to the bottom of the gables. Going to the peak will take a little longer as a lot of block has to be cut on the diagonal to make the peak. Some of the houses are already reaching for the heavens. One thing’s for sure: you couldn’t hope to find a more dedicated and hardworking group of volunteers.

I forgot to mention a moment or two of excitement we had on Saturday. The board meeting was just wrapping up when we felt the earth move. I thought it might be from the heavy equipment that’s working on the road outside of the hotel (just in time for our arrival), but it kept on coming. Turns out we were in the midst of a 5.8 quake with an epicenter about 50 miles south in the Pacific. Some of us figured it was Heaven’s way of telling us that it was about time to draw the meeting to a close.
FYI-- there is a lot of information going out from here through a number of blogs, photo sites and YouTube. Check the web page, http://www.fullercenter.org/, for more information. If you click on the little cameras on the web page they’ll take you to our photo galleries. The two photos above are of the work site as it stood at the beginning of work today

We're here!

¡Saludos desde El Salvador! We are on the ground and things are firing up. Volunteers are arriving by the hundreds, well the hundred, and so far we’ve only lost two. We found them, but they got a unique welcome to the world of international travel. The troops are cheerful and anxious and ready to go.

The Fuller Center Board of Directors met yesterday at the Estero y Mar, far and away the most exotic locale for one of our meetings yet. Had a great day with them—we’re blessed to have a board whose members are not just dedicated, but have their heads screwed on straight. It allows us to get a lot done in a fairly short period of time. Fund raising is a major issue for us right now—our dramatic growth is outstripping our income, and there’s nothing we like less than slowing down an international project for want of funds. We came up with some great ideas and you’ll be seeing the Fuller Center moving aggressively into the 21st century in this.

Meanwhile, the volunteers are arriving and getting settled. Humans have a significant nesting instinct, and most of us are not really comfortable in a new place until we have a feel for our lodgings. Fortunately our lodgings both at Estero y Mar and in La Libertad are interesting, locally flavored, and pleasant.

We had a homeowners’ meeting on Friday morning to talk through the issues of the work week. They’re a great bunch and very excited about the changes that are coming their way. All will spend a good amount of time at the site, working with the volunteers, so I think we’ll all come away from this experience enriched. During the question and answer period I was asked if they could keep animals—a question we never got in Shreveport. I told them that that was something they should work out as a community, but the consensus was that there’s nothing like fresh eggs for breakfast.

Our site is in the Municipio of San Luis Talpa, which is both a town and a county. We are in the village of Santa Clara, a rural community made up mostly of agricultural workers. During the sugar cane harvest everyone has a machete at their side. Most of our families have very modest means, but they understand how our system works and seem anxious to become donors to the housing of other families through their house payments. The financing schemes will be creative, with payments for some tied to the harvest.

Tonight we have the kick-off event. The families and the volunteers will meet each other for the first time. The mayor of San Luis Talpa will be there to welcome us to his community. Should be a lovely event.

We’ll be blogging through the week—may even have a guest blogger or two, so be sure to check in and follow the progress.