December 4, 2009

CHICAGO – A new home for a Abdikalik Abdulahi and his wife, Suaada Abdiaziz of Somalia, built by a host of volunteers, was dedicated Dec. 4 in Minneapolis – the 2,000th home built through an alliance of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans and Habitat for Humanity International.

"Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity" is a four-year, $125 million alliance of the two organizations. Their work has resulted in construction of homes in 46 states and the District of Columbia.

That alliance will conclude this year, but a new $15 million program, "Thrivent Builds Homes," will focus on volunteers from Lutheran congregations and Thrivent members. Its goal is to build 181 homes in 37 states in 2010.

Homes are sold to selected families at no profit. The buyers pay their own mortgages.

Another homebuyer family in the program includes Abraham Shokiyo, his wife, Sara Tune, and their four daughters. The family is from Ethiopia, and their new home is in St. Paul, Minn.

"We are happy to get this house because it's affordable for our family," Shokiyo said. "We have tried to buy a house, but we couldn't afford it."

Shokiyo and his family, who live in public housing in St. Paul, attend Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus, a Lutheran congregation affiliated with Trinity Lutheran Church, Minneapolis. They worship at the Augsburg College's Hoverston Chapel. Augsburg College is one of 28 colleges and universities of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

Shokiyo said he came to the United States from a refugee camp in Nairobi, Kenya, with help from his brother. He and his family have been together in the United States for the past three years. Shokiyo works at a Twin Cities restaurant.

As one of the requirements of the homebuyer program, Shokiyo helped build his home. It took nearly one year to build.

"I was very pleased to work with the volunteers. I really appreciate them," he told the ELCA News Service.

"I'm really happy to have a home in this country, especially an affordable house. My childrens' future will be brighter," Shokiyo said.

Some 350,000 volunteers in the United States have helped construct Thrivent Builds homes in the past four years, said Tim Lehman, Thrivent Financial's vice president of member experience strategy. A similar global program of Thrivent and Habitat has brought together about 4,000 volunteers in 350 teams to build homes in 32 countries, he said.

Lehman himself has helped build homes. He recalled a time when he went to El Salvador with a home building team. Each day when the team arrived for work, an 8-year-old resident, Carlitos, met the volunteers and gave them hugs, Lehman said. He introduced the volunteers to friends and took them to his school.

"It was something special to be a part of this. I was re- energized," Lehman said. "It got me to thinking about how much God has done in this country and how much we have. I think we do take a lot of things for granted. I give thanks for what we have. God has given us an opportunity to help other people and to share our faith."

"The key thing for us was that we saw that we could have an impact on people's lives," Lehman said of the alliance. A "large percentage" of home-building volunteers are Lutherans from the ELCA and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, he said. Many are also Thrivent members. Member involvement is a key part of the program, Lehman said.

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, Minneapolis, is the nation's largest fraternal benefit society.

Information about the Thrivent Builds program is at http://www.thriventbuilds.com/, on the Web.

ELCA News Service