Every year about this time we start the search for the perfect gifts, but the whole process has become increasingly commercialized. There’s no more striking symbol of that than Black Friday.  On one hand it’s good that we take time to think of our loved ones and honor them with gifts, but, my goodness, we do seem to go overboard! Fuller Friday offers a unique opportunity to remind us of the true spirit of Christmas, the day we celebrate God’s gift of His son to redeem us all.  Throughout His ministry, Jesus taught that the greatest commandment — after loving God — was to love one another, to take care of the poor and the afflicted, and to reach out to those in need.

A great way to do that is to share of your blessings to help a family in need to have a decent place to call home, and Fuller Friday is a great way to do just that. Whether you’re making a gift to a family through this ministry or giving an alternative gift to a loved one you can be sure that you are doing just as we’ve been counseled to do — loving others and reaching out to those in need.

What can your gift do to help a family have a simple, decent home?

• $10 — a box of nails
• $25 — a square of shingles
• $50 — a cabinet
• $100 — three gallons of paint
• $500 — lights and electrical wiring
• $1,000 — flooring
• And $4,000 can fund an entire safe home in Nepal, an earthquake-ravaged nation where thousands need a helping hand.

So thank you for being a part of Fuller Friday. May your Christmas season be rich with the gifts of the Spirit.

David Snell, President, The Fuller Center for Housing

 

 (Clockwise from top left, scenes from the 2015 Millard Fuller Legacy Build in Shreveport) Anthony Morgan can’t hide the tears at his home dedication; Roderick and Quinetta Carter are excited about welcoming their first child next year and raising their first-born in Allendale; volunteer house captain Kenneth Young presents Lytonja Smith a Bible at her family’s home dedication; volunteers celebrate with homeowners James and Suzanne Richardson; hard-working Vietnam Veteran Robert McDuffy accepts the keys to his new home from Fuller Center co-founder Linda Fuller.

A message from Fuller Center President David Snell …

At the end of September, I joined dozens of volunteers, supporters. local leaders and homeowners in Shreveport, Lousiana, for the 2015 Millard Fuller Legacy Build, an annual event that celebrates the legacy of The Fuller Center for Housing’s founder, a man who dedicated his life to eradicating poverty housing around the world.

On the final day of the build as we dedicated four new houses, a rehabbed home and even a side project getting the badly needed Fuller Grocery ready to open in this food desert, I thought of how I could look around from the middle of this build in the heart of the neighborhood known as Allendale and see everything this ministry is about and how your support changes lives.

• Roderick and Quinetta Carter, a hard-working young couple two years into their marriage, were excited about the prospect of welcoming their first child in March and building a family in Allendale. Studies show that children who grow up in a decent home — as the Carters’ children will — are happier, healthier and do better in school. You are laying a solid foundation for families and children to succeed.
• Next door, Lytonja Smith was handed a signed Bible at the end of the week as we do at all of our home dedications. A devout Muslim, she was grateful and thanked everyone for the gifts she had. She spoke of how "we are all one people," and expressed love for her many new Christian friends who worked alongside her and her children all week long. When you share God’s love, you build bridges and bring people together.
• On the other side of the Carter home, we dedicated a home for Vietnam veteran Robert McDuffy. Life hasn’t been easy for Mr. McDuffy since he returned from the war, but he has worked hard to support himself. In fact, he worked three janitorial jobs during the same week he also worked alongside us on his home. We asked him when he’d finally get a day off to rest. He responded, "I don’t get days off." When you support The Fuller Center, you offer a hand-up instead of a handout to people who deserve a little help and are willing to work for it.
• Two doors down, we dedicated a home for Suzanne and James Richardson, who look forward to watching their grandchildren play and spending their golden years in Allendale — a neighborhood Suzanne worked so hard to escape and one in which James said he would have never considered living. But 10 years ago, Millard Fuller answered a plea to help Shreveport with a housing crisis. The police thanked him for coming but said not to work in Allendale. They said it was too dangerous and beyond hope. Of course, that’s exactly where Millard decided to start working. Now, 48 new homes and dozens of repair projects later, Allendale’s major crime rate has fallen 80 percent. Children play where shootings and drug deals were one the norm. Streets once lined with vacant shacks now have beautiful homes filled with residents who care about the community. Pride has been restored, and Allendale is now a neighborhood of choice. You are not just building homes and strengthening families — you are also stabilizing entire communities and restoring hope to everyone in the area.

Of course, that’s just Shreveport. I could go on about how this scenario has been repeated in neighborhoods of Indianapolis and Louisville; how you’ve lifted people out of a cycle of dependency in Haiti; how you’ve turned a poor Nicaraguan fishing village into a thriving, healthy community; how you’ve protected Nepali families from the recent earthquake and are protecting more from future earthquakes. Whether you’re funding a wheelchair ramp in Georgia, a solid roof in Ohio or a new home in Armenia, you’re changing lives.

So, thank you for your support of our ministry and for helping us be the hands of God throughout the world. We look forward to continuing to build a better world, one house at a time.

In Christian partnership,

Help us reach the 3,000 families
housed milestone in 2016!

    Will you help a family
 have a simple, decent home?

Your tax-deductible gift by Dec. 31 will help build and repair homes across the U.S. and around the world in 2016.

Simple, decent homes change lives and transform communities!

 
When you give to The Fuller Center for Housing:

• You improve the chances that a child will grow up happy, healthy and well-educated
  
• You strengthen families — the building blocks of a healthy society
  
• You help elderly homeowners repair and maintain the homes they love
  
• You honor veterans by helping them have decent places to live — with the hand-up they prefer to a handout
  
• You build better streets, blocks, neighborhoods and communities — one house at a time
• And, most importantly, you put faith into action and share the love of Christ with His people in need

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING OUR YEAR-END CAMPAIGN!

 

With a very simple gift, you can help us what we to do today, even better tomorrow.

Service-learning enhances the learning environment for students. It also greatly benefits organizations like ourselves who are trying to make the world a better place. 

We value engaging with the next generation of thinkers and doers, and offer ourselves as community partners to universities and high schools across the country.

We facilitate students and faculty taking 1-3 week trips building homes with families in a local community-led project. It’s meaningful work immersed in the local culture.

Why serve with us?

1. We’re affordable. We’re believe in involving students. To do that, we know price matters. From $115/person in the U.S. and $750 internationally.

2. The work matters. We are empowered communities building homes and inviting volunteer teams to join us. Your work will make a sustainable difference.

  3. We value outcomes. We study impact and give service-learning teams the time and space they need to process the experience. Our Country Champions program encourages long-term impact.

4. We’re all over the map, and can help you get there, too. Choose from locations on five continents, including seven U.S. states.

5. We understand service-learning, partnering with universities both public and private such as North Carolina State University, Mercer University, Georgia Southwestern State University, and Methodist University.

Global Opportunities		U.S. Opportunities
Our Global Builders trips have no required language or construction skills. All sites accept both youth (14+) and adults. We suggest starting with how it works (global), but you can also learn specifics about each location by clicking on its name below. Just tell us when and where and we’ll take care of the rest.		Our U.S. Builders trips are perfect for student groups who wish to experience serving within the United States. Each project is locally-led by volunteers and volunteer-driven. Both rural and urban options are available to fit your curriculum. Learn more about it how it works (U.S.), or visit our list of U.S. site locations.

Africa Ghana Asia India Nepal Sri Lanka Europe Armenia

Latin America/Caribbean El Salvador Haiti Nicaragua Peru

Alabama Lanett Georgia Americus Macon Warwick Louisiana Hammond Shreveport Webster Parish

Missouri Joplin (Tornado recovery) Kansas City New Jersey Atlantic City – Sandy Recovery Atlantic County – Sandy Recovery North Carolina Kinston