Fuller Center General

Virtually visit the far corners of the world

By Chris Johnson
Director of communications

I've spent an awful lot of time with my headphones on this week. When I was in the newspaper business, that was my signal to co-workers that I had about eight hours' worth of work to do in the crazy three hours before the nightly deadline and that should they attempt to disturb or distract me by pulling me away from the smooth jazz or Jimmy Buffett being pumped into my brain, then they were doing so at great risk.

But this week I've spent a lot of time wearing my headphones because I've been sorting through the many videos Director of International Field Operations Ryan Iafigliola brought back from his journey to our Fuller Center operations in Sri Lanka, India and then Nepal. That's a pretty exotic two-week journey.

The videos with which he returned provide quite the window into the world. And, now that I'm done, I can take my headphones off for a bit and rejoin society. But after all that editing, I want to make sure it gets seen, so please check out and share them on your Facebook pages or email them to friends. If you're like me, seeing all these images and videos will make you want to go.

And, best of all, you can go. Go to our Global Builders page at GlobalBuilders.org and learn how you can join or lead a trip to one of these exotic lands or another country where we are very busy, such as Armenia, Haiti, El Salvador or Peru.

So, please, click the links below and enjoy these windows into a far, exotic corner of the world.

Louisville mayor GETS IT

By Chris Johnson
Director of communications

The Fuller Center for Housing does not build with government funds. It's the way founder Millard Fuller wanted it. He preferred the financial path to building be from Jesus to your heart to the home with as few stops as possible along the way.

There's nothing necessarily wrong with utilizing government funds, but it comes with a lot of red tape, sometimes enough red tape to keep you from achieving a goal. Our goal is to help people achieve the dream of affordable home ownership, pure and simple.

But, governments, especially city governments, can still play a significant role in helping us achieve our goal. Usually, we find city leaders such as mayors and councilors to be supporters of our work. After all, who is against helping people achieve home ownership with a hand-up approach? No one seems to be against helping people help themselves.

And when we get city leaders to truly understand what we do and how it can benefit their city's neighborhoods -- making them look good in the process -- they become enthusiastic supporters of our work.

One of those enthusiastic supporters is Mayor Greg Fischer of Louisville, Ky., where our Fuller Center of Louisville covenant partner carries the flag for our Save a House/Make a Home initiative. Our Louisville crowd is quite experienced in turning vacant houses into new homes and, in doing so, resurrecting a once-proud neighborhood that had been dragged down by vacant homes and the many problems they draw into a community -- such as drugs, crime and falling home prices.

At last week's home dedication for Carolyn Mayes (which you can read about here), his genuine appreciation for The Fuller Center's work was evident. More impressive is that he gets it. It's so refreshing when a politician gets it. He truly understands the value of our giving vacant houses new life, and he demonstrates an earnest fondness for the many people who partner in Louisville to make such community renewal possible.

(Click here to watch this video produced by the City of Louisville, and you'll see exactly what I mean. Oh, by the way, you'll also hear one of the most inspiring invocations ever given by a pastor at a Fuller Center home dedication, and that's truly saying something!)

The Save a Home squeeze

By Chris Johnson
Director of communications

I remember the first time I met Fuller Center for Housing founder Millard Fuller. I wasn't involved in any way with the affordable housing movement. I was merely an overworked sportswriter with high blood pressure at the age of 23.

I was covering a Futures Tour golf tournament (sort of the minor league of women's golf) at the Brickyard Plantation golf club outside of Americus in 1994. Among the notables in the tournament was Australian Karrie Webb. She was unknown at the time, but she has since earned more than $16 million and won 38 times on the LPGA Tour, more than any other active player. She finished third at the Brickyard that year, but I'll remember her more for glaring at her caddie during the final round for laughing when a pig on an adjacent farm loudly squealed as she attempted and missed a short putt. Judging by the look she gave him, he's lucky to be alive.

Only in Americus can we mix pigs and golf.

Anyway, I'd been covering the tournament and had spent a good bit of time putting together the program for the event, which that year benefited Habitat for Humanity. On the final day, Millard came up and hugged me and told me what a great job I'd been doing.

That he may or may not have actually been following what I was doing and had any basis to give me credit for a good job wasn't the issue. He hugged me. This man who had changed the world and redefined what charity meant hugged me. I wasn't the touchy-feely type, and I'd have been perfectly fine with a handshake, but the man was a hugger. My compliment came with a hug, and compliments are very hard to come by for small-town sportswriters, so I had to take it.

Which leads me to our Save a House/Make a Home initiative. Well, in a roundabout way. Our Fuller Center covenant partner in Louisville, Ky., will have a home dedication at 10 a.m. CDT Wednesday for Carolyn Mayes. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer will be there to present the keys. It's a home that was foreclosed upon, sat vacant for a year and was refurbished into a simple, decent home for Ms. Mayes, her daughter and two grandsons through the hard work of FCH Louisville, supporters, volunteers and partners.

Grace Patterson, who leads FCH Louisville's family selection committee, told me of Ms. Mayes, a cancer survivor and long-time FCH supporter: “She gives great hugs.” Actually, Grace told me much more about Ms. Mayes' amazing spirit that you can read later this week, but I found it interesting that Grace pointed out the hugging.

Outkicking my coverage in Key West

By Chris Johnson
Director of Communications

Time for some utterly selfish blogging … well, almost utterly selfish.

I'm taking off on Monday, April 2, for Key West, Fla. No I'm not going to scope out a spot on the island that will mark the end of the line for the East Coast portion of this year's Fuller Center Bicycle Adventure. I'm not going to soak up rays or visit the Jimmy Buffett shrine of Margaritaville. (Although, I will do all of the above.)

No, I'm going to tie the knot with my fiancee Shellie before she wises up and changes her mind. I mean, everybody is very happy for me, but to a person everyone seems to wonder why she's with me. I've wondered it for a good while myself. So, I've got to seal this deal before Shellie starts wondering. It'll be Monday, April 2, on the beach at sunset. We thought about doing it that Sunday, but setting a date better known as April Fools Day seemed like it might be a bad omen.

I guess sometimes you just get lucky. And I'm definitely feeling lucky right now. Lucky to work for an enterprise whose sole mission is to help people, not to make a buck. Lucky that I get to tell success stories that practically tell themselves. Lucky to be back living in an area I consider home. Lucky to have a straight-A student in the sixth grade. Lucky to see my family and extended family grow. And lucky to have a bride who is not just beautiful, but also smart, fun, kind, outgoing and generous. We often preach how it's better to give than to receive. Telling that to Shellie definitely is preaching to the choir.

When Shellie first met my colleagues back in the newspaper business, a co-worker made the comment: “Wow, Chris, you really outkicked your coverage!” It's a football metaphor that essentially means you've aimed way higher than you can justify. At The Fuller Center, I got a similar reaction but with fewer sports metaphors when folks met Shellie. As Fuller Center President David Snell, my boss, said more straightforwardly: “Shellie's really nice. What's she doing with you?”

Linda's real stars

By Chris Johnson
Director of Communications

This past weekend in McDonough, Ga., the Henry County Fuller Center for Housing, which will host the U.S. portion of the 2012 Millard Fuller Legacy Build in September, held a spaghetti dinner that served as both a fundraiser and an awareness event to promote their past, current and future work.

Henry County FCH President Shane Persaud was fortunate enough to land a special guest for the event, a woman whose life of service has literally changed the lives of millions of people -- Linda Fuller Degelmann.

Of course, it's easy to forget that Linda has done so much for people around the world because she's so darn down to Earth. But one thing I've noticed about our co-founder is that something a lot of people say about her is not true. She does not treat everyone equally.

Allow me to explain: Linda has rubbed shoulders with celebrities and heads of state. She's met famous folks left and right and treats them as if they're just normal folks. She's not awed by others' power and fame. After all, she's pretty famous and she sees herself as just a normal person.

However, I've noticed that, on the other hand, Linda does give homeowner partners star treatment. It's not some calculated effort on her part, and I suspect she hasn't noticed it herself. But nothing seems to touch Linda more than having relationships with volunteers, supporters and, more than anything, homeowner partners (who often become supporters and volunteers themselves). They are the “stars” to Linda.

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