Chapter 16

Building Faith

Habitat for Humanity

One summer day in 1984, Jimmy Carter put on his blue jeans and plaid work shirt, picked up a hammer, and joined a Habitat for Humanity house-building crew in Americus, Georgia. He had met some of the volunteers at church. Their faith and dedication to helping others impressed him. After working with them, he was hooked. He realized that Habitat wasn’t a charity; it was a chance for people in need of a home to own one.

A few weeks later, when Jimmy visited New York City to give a speech, he stopped by a Habitat project there. Habitat volunteers were turning an old six-story building on East Sixth Street into twenty new apartments. When Jimmy visited, the project was just a big pile of rubble. “Well,” he said. “I can see you’ve got some work ahead of you here.”

The Carters have worked on at least one Habitat for Humanity project every year since 1986.

“Why don’t you come back with a group from your church for a work week?” the project leader asked.

Jimmy thought about it and agreed. He recruited friends and neighbors from Georgia and arranged for a bus to take them the 989 miles to New York. Rosalynn and Jimmy rode the bus along with everyone else. They brought their own tools and slept on cots in New York’s Metro Baptist Church. No former president or first lady had ever done anything like it.

No Habitat project had ever received so much publicity. Newspaper reporters showed up at the work site, television cameras rolled, and crowds gathered to shout, “Go, Jimmy, go.” Money poured into the Habitat office. Local construction companies contributed supplies. Office workers stopped by to drop off a box of nails for the project or a bottle of soda for the workers. Churches collected special offerings for Habitat. As the week ended, Jimmy told a packed audience that Habitat’s next project would be to build homes for poor people in the country of Nicaragua. “We want the folks down there to know that some American Christians love them,” he said.

Habitat for Humanity is a Christian housing project that began in Americus, Georgia in 1976. Volunteers help to build or renovate houses for people in need. The people who receive Habitat homes contribute about five hundred hours of work on their new house, and they repay the cost over time.

Jimmy and Rosalynn were so thrilled by the success of the work project that they began holding an annual Jimmy Carter Work Project. Every year since 1986, Jimmy and Rosalynn have hosted a work project. The first several projects were in the US, but in 1990 the Carters traveled to Mexico. They helped to build homes in Tijuana. In 1993, they went to Canada. Three years later, they traveled to Europe where they built homes in Hungary, and in 1990 they traveled to the Philippines in Asia.

Earthquake!

On January 12, 2010, a massive earthquake struck the island nation of Haiti. The Carters watched news reports, and Jimmy told the press: “Like the rest of the world, Rosalynn and I were heartbroken to see the devastation and despair that the earthquake brought onto a country already so impoverished.”

More than 230,000 people died in the earthquake. Another 300,000 were injured, and 1.5 million people lost their homes. Aid organizations all over the world sent teams to help set up hospitals, emergency shelters, and food centers. Habitat provided emergency shelter kits to people throughout Haiti. These kits included hammers, pliers, chisels, work gloves, rope, and tarps that people could use to begin repairing their homes. Sadly, many homes were so badly destroyed that they had to be torn down.

The Carters began planning a work project for Haiti. When they arrived in November 2011, their team of volunteers traveled to Léogâne, where the earthquake struck hardest. (Léogâne is about eighteen miles from Haiti’s capital city of Port-au-Prince.) They helped 100 Haitian families build clean, safe homes to replace the ones they lost in the earthquake.

The Carters returned to Léogâne with another team of volunteers for a second work project in November 2012. The 2012 project began on a Sunday, and Jimmy led the volunteers in a Sunday school class, just as he does back home in Plains. He spoke for thirty-seven minutes about Paul’s message to the Philippians. He told the volunteers to remember that while good works are important, faith in Jesus Christ is more important. He said that it is through faith that we receive God’s grace. For Jimmy Carter, Habitat is not only about building houses; it is also about building faith.

The Carters, Habitat volunteers, and Haitian neighbors stand in front of a new home in Léogâne in 2011.

Celebrating 30 Years of Work Projects

In 2013, Habitat for Humanity celebrated thirty years of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Projects. Habitat officials noted on their website that “the servant spirit of President and Mrs. Carter shines ever bright.” Over the course of thirty years, the Carters have headed up projects in sixteen US states and the District of Columbia. They had traveled overseas to support projects in thirteen foreign countries.

Whether at home or abroad, housing remains a serious need. According to Habitat for Humanity, about 100 million people around the world are homeless and another 1.6 billion people live in unsafe or inadequate housing.

The 2013 project took the Carters and hundreds of volunteers to New York City, the site of the very first Carter Work Project. New York continues to face serious housing problems. In 2012 Hurricane Sandy damaged and destroyed hundreds of homes. Volunteers repaired more than ten homes on Staten Island that had been damaged in the hurricane. They also repaired eight others in Queens.

Other 2013 projects took the Carters to California. Housing in California is expensive, and the supply is limited. The Carter Work Project’s volunteers built twelve townhouses in Oakland and repaired homes in San Jose. The Carters also traveled to Colorado to build eleven townhouses in Denver. Jimmy and Rosalynn continue to provide support and encouragement to volunteer workers and new homeowners.

Today, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter are Habitat’s most famous volunteers. Jimmy says, “We have become small players in an exciting global effort to alleviate the curse of homelessness.” The Carters’ willingness to work for Habitat has attracted thousands of other volunteers. Some give money; others bring their hammers. By 2013, Habitat had built, repaired, or improved over 600,000 houses for more than three million people all over the world.

Teaching and Writing

Jimmy also teaches college. Emory University in Atlanta offered him a position as a professor. He’s been working there for over thirty years. He gives lectures in each of the university’s many departments, sharing what he had learned as president. For instance, in history classes he might talk about the American political system. In religion class, he may discuss how faith influences decisions. He gives lectures in English, law, political science, and science classes. Every September he meets with several thousand first-year students. They ask questions, and he gives honest answers. He never runs out of things to say.

Both Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter are authors. By 2013, Jimmy Carter had written twenty-eight books, Rosalynn had written four, and they wrote one book together. The books include autobiographies, histories, religious books, poetry, and even a children’s picture book, The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer. Amy did the artwork. Jimmy Carter is the first and only president to write a novel. The Hornet’s Nest, published in 2003, is a 480-page novel about the Revolutionary War.

Jimmy has also written speeches, essays, and poems. In 2011, he wrote a book of mediations: Through the Year with Jimmy Carter: 366 Daily Meditations from the 39th President. In 2012, he published an edition of the Bible: NIV Lessons from Life Bible: Personal Reflections with Jimmy Carter. This special Bible includes prayers, quotations, and comments on his favorite Bible passages. In his 2011 book of meditations, Jimmy includes prayers for every single day of the year, plus one extra for leap year. In the last entry (#366), he writes, “If we submit to the will of God and accept the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we can accomplish anything.” That’s exactly what Jimmy Carter strives to do!

U.S. Locations	Foreign Countries
Alabama	Cambodia
California	Canada
District of Columbia	China
Florida	Haiti
Georgia	Hungary
Illinois	India
Kentucky	Laos
Louisiana	Mexico
Maryland	Philippines
Michigan	South Africa
Minnesota	South Korea
Mississippi	Thailand
North Carolina	Vietnam
New York	The Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Projects have taken place in eighteen US states and the District of Columbia, as well as in thirteen foreign countries.
Pennsylvania
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Wisconsin