Home is where the heart is

Chuck and Terri Gafford of Appleton, Wisconsin, remember every family they’ve built a home for through Thrivent’s partnership with Habitat for Humanity. There’s Jay, the kid from Wisconsin who was sleeping in the walk-in closet of a one-bedroom apartment he shared with his family. There are the three brothers from Poland who lost their mother. Every day, the middle brother, a caretaker for his handicapped siblings, would carry them up and down the stairs to their second-story apartment.

Then there’s Zoe, a 4-year-old girl from a small village along the Danube River in Hungary, who was living in a house that was so moldy, it was affecting her breathing. As the Gaffords and their team of volunteers spent their time insulating the outside of Zoe’s home to keep the inside dry, the little girl was drawn to Chuck, whom she started referring to as “her American grandpa.”

“In the morning, before she went to daycare, she’d come running and she’d say, ‘Papa! Papa!’ I’d pick her up, give her a big hug, and she’d kiss me on the cheek. I was in a puddle of tears,” Chuck says. “Since then, we’ve seen pictures of her, and she’s continuing to grow and becoming a fine young lady in a city that we didn’t think she would have a chance in. It’s those kinds of experiences that keep pulling us back in.”

This passion for helping families that need safety and housing started for the Gaffords in 2006. Terri, who worked for Thrivent at the time—she has now been retired since 2019—was one of 12 people selected to go to Poland for a build. “We had to learn how to work together in a country where they don’t speak a lot of English,” she recalls. “We learned how to communicate with locals by taking a stick and drawing in the dirt and playing charades.”

She came back to the U.S. completely changed. “Chuck met me at the Appleton airport. You would expect that, for being apart for so long, I would say, ‘I missed you so much!’ I did not do that,” Terri says. “I said, ‘I need to grab my luggage and go home and do laundry. I’m going back to Poland. I figured out what I want to do for the rest of my life now that I’m in my 50s.’”

Within three months, both Terri and Chuck were being trained by Habitat and Thrivent to become team leaders. They’ve now led, by their estimate, 470 volunteers on 30 Habitat and Thrivent Worldwide builds around the country and across the globe, including to Poland, Hungary, Romania and Macedonia, as well as Louisiana, Missouri, Oregon, Texas, Florida, Kentucky and Wisconsin.

“We have found that our itch is really scratched whenever we’re working with families that need homes—whether it's in Medford or Sebring or Budapest or wherever. You’re helping folks who need help,” Terri says.

Chuck and Terri represent two of the 842,000 Thrivent clients and other volunteers who have donated their time and talent to the Habitat and Thrivent partnership since the program’s inception in 2005.

After Lutheran Brotherhood and Aid Association for Lutherans merged to form Thrivent in 2002, “we were looking for a nonprofit we could partner with that encourages clients and prospective clients to put their generosity into action in meaningful, new ways,” says Amy Heinen, Thrivent’s director of member engagement strategies.

Nearly two decades in, more than 25,000 individuals have been served with safe and affordable homes built or renovated for them. Further, upward of $282 million has been donated to Habitat through affiliate/country program donations and fees, which Thrivent helps offset for all participants, making the experience more affordable.

There are currently three domestic build locations: Marianna, Florida; Bowling Green, Kentucky; and Medford, Oregon. International builds—which resumed for the first time since COVID this past spring—travel to Brazil, Cambodia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Fiji, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Mexico, Nepal, Paraguay, Poland, Romania and Vietnam—and the list of destinations is growing.

“It’s a way for Habitat and Thrivent to partner together with families from around the world who need decent, safe and affordable housing to make a powerful impact in the lives of families and communities by helping where it’s needed most,” Heinen says.

No special skills are required for the builds. Anyone 18 or older, regardless of Thrivent membership status, can sign up to join a build, whether they’re recruited by a friend or family member, or they apply for one of the open teams listed on Thrivent’s website. Team leaders like Chuck and Terri, however, must be 24 years or older and have a membership with Thrivent.

Once a team leader’s build proposal is accepted and a team—which typically ranges anywhere from 10 to 16 people—is compiled, they spend about a week at their destination, learning new skills, fostering bonds with others on the team and the family for whom they’re building a home, and immersing themselves in the local culture.

“[The participants] are so passionate. People often talk about how they want to put their generosity into action, and Thrivent allows them to do that in different ways they maybe wouldn’t have thought of before,” says Taylor Ruffing, Thrivent’s program operations specialist. “These experiences are life changing. They come back with a changed perspective and view.”

David “Ziggy” Ziegler tells people that “Habitat” is his middle name. The former Air Force officer volunteers at the Habitat affiliate in Denver five times a week. He started in 1999 when he joined his church’s faith coalition, the Holy Hammers, helping to build homes on the weekends. Now he spends most days recycling metal at a nearby Habitat ReStore, a home improvement store and donation center.

Retiring from Boeing in 2014, Ziegler also has had the opportunity to join more than 60 Habitat builds, 50 of which have been through Thrivent. “I’ve been able to experience destinations and cultures I probably would never have gotten to had it not been for the Thrivent and Habitat builds,” Ziegler says.

Of all the places he’s traveled for builds—including most countries in Central America; Paraguay; Macedonia; Jackson, Mississippi; and, most recently, Bowling Green, Kentucky, as part of a Chuck and Terri–led team—his favorite location is Medford, Oregon. Right after the pandemic, Ziegler took every opportunity he could to join build teams there. “I’d be there for a week, come home for a week and then go right back,” he says. “I fell in love with the people up there.”

The people are what keep Ziegler hooked. “When you go on these trips, you really get to meet the people, and they’re so appreciative of the work that we do. You end up being lifelong friends with your team. You have similar ideas and goals,
so it's a great group of people to travel with.”

Taylor Hugo is a freelance writer in Colorado.