Little Kimberly Newman captured the hearts of all the volunteers who came to Hillsville, Virginia, from across the country to help her parents April and Josh Newman build a new home — and a solid foundation for Kimberly, 4, and her baby sister due in January 2025.

Kimberly could not wait for the school day to end during that September build week because she wanted to see her “new friends” — volunteers who ranged in age from twenty-somethings to octogenarians. She sang songs and posed for pictures. She was most happy after the walls were raised, and the concept of a new home became real.

“This is my room,” she proudly proclaimed to multiple people as she provided home tours. A couple weeks later, as the local Fuller Center covenant partner was busy putting finishing touches on the home, remnants of Hurricane Helene sent a tree crashing into the living room of the Newmans’ apartment. Thank God the family was not hurt and is safe — and thank God they now have a simple, decent place to call home.

Our motto at The Fuller Center for Housing is “Building a better world, one house at a time.” However, success begets more success. We have seen houses multiply in neighborhoods where Fuller Center homes have been built, from Millard Fuller’s hometown of Lanett, Alabama, to parts of Indianapolis, and Shreveport, Louisiana’s Allendale neighborhood with dozens of Fuller Center homes that transformed the area. Internationally, we have Fuller Center communities of more than 100 homes in places like Nuevo Cuscatlán and Ahuachapán, El Salvador, and La Florida, Peru.

Yet, even those larger communities were built one house at a time.

As our founder Millard Fuller stressed, this is about more than houses. We are building stronger communities one family at a time and building stronger families one child at a time.

Not one house, however, can be built, nor a family uplifted, without the support of people like you — someone who understands the power of offering a hand-UP to families in need. You empower families not only to provide more stable foundations for their children and become givers themselves, but you also empower them to become as our homeowner partners as they contribute sweat equity and repay the costs of construction through zero-percent-interest mortgages. This empowerment in turn helps other families in their local community benefit from the very same kind of empowering hand-UP.

The Fuller Center for Housing invites you to celebrate 20 years of building a better world with us in 2025! You are ensuring that children like Kimberly — and thousands more — have the stability and strong foundation for them to grow, learn and know joy.

You also extend hope to those impacted by natural disasters, including in western North Carolina, where our Disaster ReBuilders have a new base. You fuel amazing work in some of the world’s poorest countries, such as Madagascar, which is becoming one of our most productive international partners. You provide a beacon of hope in troubled Haiti, where our inspiring partners continue to build and move families out of shacks. You help seniors stay safely in the homes they love as our covenant partners across the U.S. perform Greater Blessing repairs.

And, yes, you help kids like Kimberly have “my room” and families like the Newmans have “our home.”

The Fuller Center alone cannot solve America’s affordable housing crisis. Yet, we ca provide a shining example of how an efficient non-governmental organization with generous supporters and hard-working volunteers can not only make a difference through the building of simple, decent homes, but we can also provide an example for others to follow.

With your support, we can keep spreading hope through the Theology of the Hammer, putting faith into action as we build a better world, one house at a time … in 2025 and beyond!

United in Faith, Compassion, and Hope,