wfn.org | Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, Habitat for Humanity Finish 2, 000th Home

[<NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

Title: Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, Habitat for Humanity Finish 2,000th Home
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

>December 4, 2009  

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, Habitat for Humanity Finish 2,000th Home
09-272-JB

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- 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.

For information contact:

John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog