As was previously announced, Thrivent approved the application to build five houses as a cooperative effort with Habitat for Humanity of greater Stark and Carroll Counties, the Thrivent members of these Chapters and our fellow Lutherans who are members of the Congregations in Stark and Carroll Counties.
According to this plan, called " Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity", Thrivent will provide 65% of the cost of each of the five houses, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Stark and Carroll Counties will provide 25% of the cost, screen applicants, select partner families and supervise the construction. Three of the houses are to be built in Canton, one in Massillon and one in Carroll County.
Baised only on the response to previous opportunities to do good that we have seen among our Lutheran brothers and sisters, the elected Leaders of the Stark and Carroll- Harrison Chapters of Thrivent agreed that we could find enough Lutheran volunteers to provide 50% of the workers on each work site each week to build the houses, recruit people to prepare and bring to the work sites a snack and beverage at 10 am and lunch for all the workers at noon and that our Thrivent Members and our fellow Lutherans would contribute enough money to provide 10% of the cost.
Many of you shared this information with the other leaders of your congregations and we received pledges of support . The 2008 Build was under way. The house in Massillon was started first. The three in Canton were next with one each week for the next three weeks. the house in Carroll County was started in mid June.
The work is progressing very well. Many of the Partner Families who will be receiving a Habitat House this year are showing up at our houses to begin to get in some of the sweat equity hours that every Habitat Home owner is required to put in before they can receive their new home. The house in Massillon is nearing completion.It would be very beneficial toward receiving an invitation to apply for a Thrivent Builds grant for a house in Massillon next year if a lot of Thrivent Members and a lot of fellow Lutherans would show up for the painting, landscaping and cleaning days to help get it ready to hand over the keys to the Partner Family.
Due to the wonderful response of the regular Habitat Volunteers and Partner Family Members who are anxious to wotk on these first houses in Canton, we are in danger of falling below the 50% Lutherans and 12.5% Thrivent Members on the volunteer worker list at each house each Saturday. We can easily fix that by having a few more Thrivent Members and 5 or 6 more Lutherans show up the next few Saturdays at each of our three Canton houses, 525 High Ave. SW, 531 High Ave. SW and 704 Sixth St SW.
The Carroll County House is just getting started so there we have a great opportunity to have groups of Lutherans from congregations in Stark County go help build that house and improve our percentages of Lutherans and Thrivent Members which will be calculated from the lists of persons who came out to work on any of the five "Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity" Houses.
To date we have received just over half of our 10%. Contributions are welcome from individuals as well as from churches. If your church is not receiving contributions for Thrivent Builds, you may contribute directly by sending your gift to: Thrivent Builds Specialist, Darrel Rice, 2821 Anderson Ave. NE. Minerva, OH 44657.
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