Habitat For Humanity: Miracle On 19th Street

<v Abby Flanders>Pictures are worth a thousand words, particularly when they show the beginning of a dream <v Abby Flanders>come true. The people who now live in the northeast area of Charlotte, known as Optimist <v Abby Flanders>Park, thrived on such a dream, a dream so powerful, so untouchable, <v Abby Flanders>that to have it answered would constitute a miracle. <v Abby Flanders>Between July 27 and 31st, 14 families were blessed <v Abby Flanders>with such a miracle. <v Abby Flanders>I am standing inside a dream, and that sounds a bit ridiculous, but if you were here <v Abby Flanders>on the site of Habitat for Humanity, you'd know, there are miracles going on. <v Abby Flanders>In fact, it's called Miracle on 19th Street. <v Abby Flanders>I'm Abby Flanders. And here we have seen a number of wonderful people who are helping <v Abby Flanders>with the efforts of building 14 houses in five days. <v Abby Flanders>Of course, you're going to see the end result of all of this. <v Abby Flanders>But we wanted you to take a little bit of a look at some of the people, some of the <v Abby Flanders>humanity, some of the love that has gone into the efforts so far.

<v Abby Flanders>The project involved people from 27 states, two Canadian provinces, <v Abby Flanders>a former president of the United States and his wife. <v Abby Flanders>It brought hundreds of curious onlookers to the site where a mission had begun, a mission <v Abby Flanders>that appeared to be impossible, except there was a sense of caring and sharing that <v Abby Flanders>loomed over the neighborhood, like an illuminant spiritual force, making the mission more <v Abby Flanders>like an attainable vision. <v Jimmy Carter>Well, this is our fourth summer work camp two in New York and one last summer in Chicago <v Jimmy Carter>this year, and she in Charlotte, North Carolina. <v Jimmy Carter>This is by far the most ambitious because with all the volunteer work, we're building 14 <v Jimmy Carter>homes in just five days. <v Jimmy Carter>And this is our first day. <v Jimmy Carter>By tonight, we'll have the roof on and have it shoot it in and put the shingles on <v Jimmy Carter>tomorrow. But not only in Charlotte, but because this community has been so exciting <v Jimmy Carter>and so inspirational. We are building 250 homes and all this week that habitat <v Jimmy Carter>and 150 different communities in the nation and overseas. <v Jimmy Carter>So we're very excited about this week. And it's the kind of work just not only exciting

<v Jimmy Carter>and challenging and unpredictable, but also a lot of fun. <v Abby Flanders>Yeah, we've been watching you back there working with the rest of the gang, trying to put <v Abby Flanders>all of this together. How many hours do you think you'll be working? <v Jimmy Carter>Well, we are in the morning. We'll start pretty early at like six o'clock because we want <v Jimmy Carter>to get as many shingles on as we can before it gets too hot. <v Jimmy Carter>Now, we start at five o'clock in the afternoon and take about a half hour for lunch. <v Jimmy Carter>So we put in you hour ten, eleven hours a day. <v Abby Flanders>The 10 to 11 hour workday was just the beginning for the first powering volunteers, <v Abby Flanders>who's beckoning hearts compelled them to join with the Carters and others in the <v Abby Flanders>construction of 14 houses from the ground up on this once abandoned ball <v Abby Flanders>field. <v Jimmy Carter>It's a true partnership. And on all those projects, the families that are going to be <v Jimmy Carter>living on them are working on the houses that they're going to live in. <v Jimmy Carter>We have 14 families here. A lot of them have never had good luck before. <v Jimmy Carter>I say, never have lived in a nice house. <v Jimmy Carter>And by Friday night, we just started this morning. <v Jimmy Carter>But by Friday night, they'll be moving in a brand new home, beautiful and comfortable <v Jimmy Carter>and warm and somewhat cool in the summertime, perhaps.

<v Jimmy Carter>And we hope to get some of the grounds landscape put up some playground equipment for the <v Jimmy Carter>kids. So I think the whole neighborhood and maybe the whole city of Charlotte <v Jimmy Carter>and a lot of other communities will be more aware of the needs of the <v Jimmy Carter>homeless and also aware that people that are fortunate can actually do something about <v Jimmy Carter>it. It's not a sacrifice, but from which we really derive a lot <v Jimmy Carter>of pleasure, and a lot of benefit ourselves. <v Abby Flanders>Each man, woman and child worked diligently through the 95 degree temperatures <v Abby Flanders>without regard for their own comfort, but rather with a hearty compassion and an <v Abby Flanders>overwhelming belief that the work being done would indeed be mutually beneficial <v Abby Flanders>to all. <v Jack Walters>I'm seeing an awful lot of miracles right here now with amount of people gathered from <v Jack Walters>all over the country to help in this program. <v Jack Walters>But my blessing is seeing families who have never had the opportunity of decent <v Jack Walters>housing have not only shelter, but a new way of life. <v Jack Walters>We follow it up. We just don't leave the families with a new home.

<v Jack Walters>We try to follow up with a family for at least a year, trying to give them <v Jack Walters>an opportunity of new nutrition funds and <v Jack Walters>all different sorts of ways of living that we have been accustomed to. <v Jack Walters>And they have no idea of what we're we try not to push it down their throat. <v Jack Walters>There's a lot of pride and dignity involved with this program. <v Speaker>And no one feels that pride and dignity more than those potential homeowners who worked <v Speaker>side by side with the Carters and others during the creation of this miracle. <v Speaker>Darling Dobbie is one new homeowner who has perhaps the most unforgettable experience. <v Darlene Darby>Well, I'm very excited because Jimmy Carter's working on our house personally, and I'm <v Darlene Darby>very excited when he came out yesterday and stood on my foundation. <v Darlene Darby>So, you know, I was like I was gonna pass out. <v Darlene Darby>I had tears in my eyes. You know, it's very exciting. <v Darlene Darby>I'm happy. I'm happy. <v Darlene Darby>I have three children, five of us, including my husband. <v Darlene Darby>So it's five of us. And it's it was very tight for us, <v Darlene Darby>you know. But I see that made a way for us.

<v Speaker>You know, the sounds of hammers and stores, melodious music to the ears of another <v Speaker>Habitat homeowner. <v Ronnie Holloway>I live in a house with someone else. I'm renting from somebody that owns the house and <v Ronnie Holloway>they just rent us the house. <v Ronnie Holloway>You know, we found that two years ago, but I'm not satisfied with it. <v Ronnie Holloway>But the house, the rebuilding here. <v Ronnie Holloway>I know what's in it. And I'm real satisfied. <v Ronnie Holloway>Because this house is mine. <v Ronnie Holloway>I mean, you know, because I'm I can't say that I'm not satisfied <v Ronnie Holloway>because I've heard a lot of people say these houses are gonna be small. <v Ronnie Holloway>I look at it this way. I didn't care if he was that big of mine. <v Ronnie Holloway>And I don't have to worry about someone taking it away from me. <v Speaker>Ronnie Holloway and Darlene Darby are only two of the 14 people who found a movie <v Speaker>getting with home ownership and the Habitat for Humanity program. <v Speaker>The program itself started as a vehicle of hope for those whose hope it vanished in a <v Speaker>world of self-centered ambition and materialistic gain. <v Speaker>It was born in the Christian heart of MILIT Fuller, Millard Fuller and his wife, <v Speaker>Linda, the one who started here about 10 years ago.

<v Speaker>Then something kind of a real love. And then they went overseas in Zaire for three years. <v Speaker>So let's say, you know, a godfather and divorce and inspiration for it. <v Speaker>Well, I moved to South Georgia <v Speaker>way back several years ago in 1968 and <v Speaker>began working with a man named Clarence Jurden. <v Speaker>And he and I together began to talk about what we could do as Christians <v Speaker>to help the poor, to help people who, you know, didn't have enough <v Speaker>money. They were sort of left by the wayside economically and particularly <v Speaker>we were concerned about people who didn't have a decent home. <v Speaker>We saw so many people in southwest Georgia who are poor. <v Speaker>They lived in what we call down that way. And what I think I call it in North Carolina <v Speaker>shacks. And they didn't own the shacks. <v Speaker>They didn't own the land. They didn't own the houses. <v Speaker>They weren't insulated. They leaked. They had no water. <v Speaker>They had no electricity in many instances. <v Speaker>And they couldn't go to the bank. And they would just sort of forgotten people. <v Speaker>And we said somebody ought to be concerned about these folks because

<v Speaker>they are made in the image of God and they're precious to God, and they ought to be <v Speaker>precious to us. And so we formed a program called Partnership Housing and began <v Speaker>to build simple but decent homes for low income families <v Speaker>and use what we call the Bible finance plan or the economics of Jesus. <v Speaker>We said we won't charge any profit, we won't charge any interest. <v Speaker>We'll get volunteers to build these houses. <v Speaker>You helped build it. You helped design it. <v Speaker>And you move in and and you make your payments back. But they'll be low enough so you can <v Speaker>afford them, even people with very limited incomes. <v Speaker>So we started building way back there in 1968 and partnership housing program. <v Speaker>We built almost five years and then we saw that the concept worked. <v Speaker>It didn't seem like it should work in a capitalist society, but it was working. <v Speaker>And so we took the idea to Africa in 1973. <v Speaker>We worked over there for three years in the old Belgian Congo and a country today, which <v Speaker>is Zaire. And the idea worked there. <v Speaker>We came back to the United States in a little over 10 years ago. <v Speaker>We formed Habitat for Humanity as an umbrella organization under which projects

<v Speaker>could form all across this country and around the world. <v Speaker>And today we in two hundred and four U.S. <v Speaker>cities with these programs. We're in Canada and 18 countries overseas. <v Speaker>So it's an idea that started in a very remote corner of southwest Georgia. <v Speaker>But it's caught on and we just don't know where the end of it is. <v Speaker>We. Our goal is that we're going to eliminate poverty, housing in the world and get <v Speaker>everybody in a decent house. <v Speaker>The plan for a decent housing involve poor care. <v Speaker>Well, training volunteers, many of whom were not carpenters, but each of them learned <v Speaker>quickly the skills necessary for the job. <v Speaker>Now, here are a couple of guys who are sitting down on the job. <v Speaker>Excuse me, gentlemen, if you don't mind, could you just tell us briefly, what are you <v Speaker>doing with these plants? <v Speaker>Well, we're trying to decide how to lay out the roof system, the roof system, <v Speaker>according to what you have here. <v Speaker>What have you decided to do? Is it too complicated for us to know? <v Speaker>Not really. It's a hip roof. <v Speaker>We need to put the center ones up first and work out beyond on towards the outside

<v Speaker>with those. And we're just deciding which then we want to start with and which which <v Speaker>truss system we need to go with first. <v Speaker>The construction continued throughout the grueling heat as day after day brought <v Speaker>continuous progress. The moves were constructed as promised. <v Speaker>Each framed structure begin to take the shape of a house and with care, concern and <v Speaker>sensitivity of effort. Each house began to take the shape of a home. <v Speaker>

<v Julia Maulden>I spent a great deal of playing a great deal of frustration, a great deal of joy, put <v Julia Maulden>everything into plu perfect. That's what it's been to us. <v Julia Maulden>Oh, the remarkable camaraderie which has developed <v Julia Maulden>between and among people from all over. <v Julia Maulden>And the folks here in Charlotte, our families, our <v Julia Maulden>board members, our builders, our community, <v Julia Maulden>just a marvelous spirit. <v Julia Maulden>And it's hard to define spirit, but you can feel it. <v Julia Maulden>And I think the response of the community of Charlotte its tremendous <v Julia Maulden>rallying to what they perceive to be a very worthy

<v Julia Maulden>endeavor. President Carter said last night at a dinner that I attended with <v Julia Maulden>him that never in all his life, and he'd been all over the world, had he seen anything <v Julia Maulden>like the response of a community to a felt <v Julia Maulden>human need. <v Jimmy Carter>But is in Sumter county where I live, or Plains is in Sumter County, Georgia, <v Jimmy Carter>the habitat and the associations with Habitat have built almost 200 homes <v Jimmy Carter>already in one county, small county in Georgia. <v Jimmy Carter>But what we try to do is to kind of plant seed around the city of Charlotte <v Jimmy Carter>and the city of Los Angeles and the city Chicago, city of New York. <v Jimmy Carter>Plus 16 foreign nations see that with a very small <v Jimmy Carter>amount of money and a large amount of volunteer work and <v Jimmy Carter>the proper attitude towards poor people, oh, great magnification can be <v Jimmy Carter>realized in the effort and finances that go into it. <v Jimmy Carter>For us, it's a Bible says you don't charge any interest to poor people.

<v Jimmy Carter>So we don't charge any interest, then obviously we don't make any profit. <v Jimmy Carter>And a lot of the work is contributed free. <v Jimmy Carter>So, you know, these families have a good deal. <v Jimmy Carter>But the same time they have to make their monthly payments. <v Jimmy Carter>We don't give away anything and we take their monthly payments from habitat families all <v Jimmy Carter>over the world and use that money to build more homes for more poor people. <v Jimmy Carter>The churches, the people who live in this neighborhood themselves, <v Jimmy Carter>the city and county governments, the entire business, a finan- financial community, <v Jimmy Carter>have just been inspired, I think, to raise their money and do a tremendous amount of <v Jimmy Carter>preliminary work before these volunteers got here. <v Jimmy Carter>So Charlotte has been an inspiration to us, and I hope that we can mean as <v Jimmy Carter>much to Charlotte before we leave as a people in this great community have meant to us. <v Ronnie Holloway>I could hug everybody. <v Ronnie Holloway>Really could. I mean, this is a this is a dream come true for me right now. <v Ronnie Holloway>I work at the Néstor Corporation. I've been there three years. <v Ronnie Holloway>I'm a press work operator. I make steel frames. <v Ronnie Holloway>And in about 10, 15 years, I could have saved half the amount

<v Ronnie Holloway>of money to buy an existing home, not a new home, but an old home, and then I'd <v Ronnie Holloway>have to remodel some things in it. And I wasn't I really didn't want to do that. <v Ronnie Holloway>I would rather to have a house of my own. <v Ronnie Holloway>I promised my wife, believe it or not, seven years ago, that we'd have a home <v Ronnie Holloway>before I turned 30 years old, built from the ground up. <v Ronnie Holloway>I didn't know then that this was going to happen, but it has. <v Ronnie Holloway>I'm happy about it and I really believe she is. <v Speaker>There are countless blessings that emerge from the Habitat program, blessings that are <v Speaker>worth a lifetime of new self-esteem for its beneficiaries. <v Darlene Darby>Well, my experiences where I learned how to put down foundations <v Darlene Darby>and what to do and what not to do in a house, you know, <v Darlene Darby>there's some things you can do, some things that you can't do. <v Darlene Darby>So all I can say is, you know, that I have learned some things <v Darlene Darby>here. So if something happens to my house you know, I can go in there and fix it. <v Darlene Darby>You know, without having to pay money to get somebody else to do it. <v Darlene Darby>I might could do it myself.

<v Rosalyn Carter>There's no doubt that Habitat builds relationships and sometimes it gets well, <v Rosalyn Carter>always people who like us don't have to worry about a house or food to eat <v Rosalyn Carter>and so forth. It lets us learn so much about the needs of people. <v Rosalyn Carter>And also, it teaches people a trade sometimes <v Rosalyn Carter>I know in New York, I worked with a girl on her apartment, they have to spend so many <v Rosalyn Carter>hours from 500 on up working on their own house. <v Rosalyn Carter>And then they have to pay for it. And they feel so good about it. <v Rosalyn Carter>To pay the cost. But I worked with this girl in New York who had who had <v Rosalyn Carter>was struggling to make a living working in a kitchen. <v Rosalyn Carter>The second year we went back to help finish the apartment. <v Rosalyn Carter>She had been offered a job as she was as an apprentice in the <v Rosalyn Carter>in the union, in the buildings union. <v Rosalyn Carter>And she is now a carpenter, making a good living. <v Rosalyn Carter>People learn to lay brick, to lay tile, to do all kinds of things. <v Rosalyn Carter>And so not only have people have a home, but you teach them a trade. <v Abby Flanders>Joy and an overwhelming sense of brotherhood where the key sources of spiritual unity <v Abby Flanders>throughout the project, as home after home neared completion, you could feel the

<v Abby Flanders>intense love and fulfillment within the newly created neighborhood. <v Willie Wilkerson>I have received great experience here in Charlotte for this <v Willie Wilkerson>week from July the 26 to August the first. <v Willie Wilkerson>It has been fantastic. I have seen a lot of love. <v Willie Wilkerson>Much, much happiness. <v Willie Wilkerson>Lot of inspiration. A lot of brotherhood among all <v Willie Wilkerson>people. <v Speaker>It just it's just a wonderful organization. <v Speaker>And Habitat not only helps <v Speaker>build houses for people in need. <v Speaker>It gives people and communities hope. <v Speaker>Whether sometimes total hopelessness. <v Speaker>And I think that's so important. The world, too. <v Speaker>It was just another thing that Jim and I always think it's a good way <v Speaker>to put your religion into practice. <v Speaker>It has opened eyes in the city of Charlotte. <v Speaker>Wide, wide open. It had open eyes in this nation, <v Speaker>in the U.S., a wide open. <v Speaker>This is international. It has opened.

<v Speaker>As for many, many people who are very, very selfish <v Speaker>and don't want to give the time to help others. <v Speaker>It has broken eyes. It had broken the hearts of a lot of people because <v Speaker>when it died, they're not going take nothing with them. <v Speaker>And I think next year is going to double. <v Speaker>If we came back to Charlotte next year, we will be able to build twenty eight houses <v Speaker>instead of 14. <v Speaker>Do you think that that's a go for habitat? <v Speaker>Do you want to challenge the habitat people right now across the country to do just <v Speaker>that, to build 28 next year instead of the 40? <v Speaker>I'm not at liberty. I'm not an administrative position of it. <v Speaker>But just speaking of my core, I would challenge it. <v Speaker>I really would act. I can go around and get volunteer, see when people want <v Speaker>to do something. You can get more out of him. <v Speaker>But when you're paying somebody to do something, you can hardly get that much out of just <v Speaker>a limited amount of work. But these people have been gracious <v Speaker>for working. <v Speaker>I mean, they worked hard with a lot of inspiration. <v Speaker>They had been willing to work. They had been willing to follow instructions.

<v Speaker>They were more than willing to be geared to do the same thing <v Speaker>next year. <v Speaker>And I'll take my hat off that we could do double nature day five, <v Speaker>move in day and 14 families will spend their first tonight under a roof that they <v Speaker>helped to assemble during the course of the week. <v Speaker>Furniture, pictures, leftover parts of another life were gathered and carried into <v Speaker>each home, bringing together the best of something old with the very best <v Speaker>of something new. <v Speaker>What do you feel? <v Speaker>And no, you're right. <v Speaker>You can make steam,

<v Speaker>you know, from the. <v Speaker>Believe in yourself. <v Speaker>Right from the start. <v Speaker>You'll have brains, you'll have a. <v Speaker>And everyone pitched in to help with last minute choice. <v Speaker>This is day five for the Habitat program and you're coming down to the wire.

<v Speaker>We see that you have a floor that has been laid down and you're doing some work on <v Speaker>it. Tell us a little bit about what you're doing. <v Speaker>I'm mopping. <v Speaker>We didn't have a mop. So I had to do it with a rag. <v Speaker>But we're getting some paint on that little bit of paint on the floor and things like <v Speaker>that. And I'm cleaning up the tile. We're doing the finishing touches today, so we just <v Speaker>kind of looking for things that need to be done like this. <v Speaker>The emotional release for volunteers and homeowners was indeed overwhelming. <v Speaker>When I signed on as director of this project, I set <v Speaker>three goals. <v Speaker>The first goal was to participate in the House raising week nationally, and a second goal <v Speaker>was to do this project very well. <v Speaker>The third goal that I set was to engage the Charlotte community <v Speaker>and to let them understand about this type of Christianity. <v Speaker>This hands on, get out and do something for <v Speaker>somebody else type of Good Samaritan ism.

<v Speaker>And I wanted to do was to let the community know about it and throw <v Speaker>it up for grabs and see if we see if the community would want to engage in <v Speaker>the media, fell in love with a story and was able to tell the story the <v Speaker>way we wanted to tell the story. <v Speaker>And we thank you for that. <v Speaker>But the Charlotte community has grabbed a hold of this idea. <v Speaker>And it is my hope, as it was when I signed on, that little clusters <v Speaker>of influence, little satellites all around a Metroliner beat and met Hill <v Speaker>or in Huntersville or out on the west side of town or down the other side of Panvel. <v Speaker>These clusters kind of start with small churches getting together and saying, well, why <v Speaker>don't we do something like what they're doing and you don't have to go out and start <v Speaker>painting somebodies porch or reroof and somebodies house. <v Speaker>It could be just going to see some shut ins or an orphan or somebody who's <v Speaker>just recently been widowed.

<v Speaker>It's just the getting out and doing something for somebody else that Habitat's all about. <v Speaker>And that's what I hoped the message would be. <v Speaker>And I think. <v Speaker>I think that's what the message is. <v Speaker>Well, we came to Charlotte because we had a great deal of confidence in the leadership of <v Speaker>Charlotte. The city administration is composed of such fine people. <v Speaker>The business community, the church community and the leadership of the Habitat <v Speaker>organization here is just outstanding. <v Speaker>So we thought that if we came here to do an ambitious project like this, which is the <v Speaker>most single ambition, the single most ambitious project we've ever done. <v Speaker>We thought if it could work any way, it would work in Charlotte, and it has. <v Speaker>We started here on Monday with foundations and by Friday, 14 houses <v Speaker>were complete with shrubbery and trees and all the plumbing and heating and electrical, <v Speaker>and the families are moving in. So we made a wise choice. <v Speaker>Charlotte is an outstanding city, a city with a caring and concerned and loving <v Speaker>heart. And I don't think we've seen the end of what this city is going to do because a <v Speaker>city like this is going to go far.

<v Jimmy Carter>Well, it's been a lot better even than we expected, and we expected a lot. <v Jimmy Carter>The most important memory that everybody will take away from Charlotte is what <v Jimmy Carter>a wonderful, wonderful community this is. <v Jimmy Carter>And everybody cooperated with us and made us feel at home. <v Jimmy Carter>And we're generous for the time and for the money and with the prayers. <v Jimmy Carter>And obviously, we'll have 14 families who <v Jimmy Carter>will be delighted tonight when they're living in a brand new house, maybe some a decent <v Jimmy Carter>home for the first time. But you'll have 350 volunteers who are also delighted <v Jimmy Carter>and grateful that we've had such a wonderful week. <v Jimmy Carter>With furniture in place, trees and plants placed in picturesque locations throughout <v Jimmy Carter>the neighborhood. It was time to dedicate this site and to thank God for the <v Jimmy Carter>miracles of the week. <v Jimmy Carter>For me, this week will always be one of those rare high points in my <v Jimmy Carter>life because we've had 350 or maybe <v Jimmy Carter>400, I don't know, volunteers here from Charlotte, I think it was 26 or 28 states in the <v Jimmy Carter>nation,

<v Jimmy Carter>Canada to come together just for a week to experience <v Jimmy Carter>a great essence of Christian charity. <v Jimmy Carter>A lot of people from Charlotte have commented Oh we thank you Mr. President for coming <v Jimmy Carter>here and all these wonderful things you're doing I said, look don't thank me. <v Jimmy Carter>We thank you for making it possible. <v Jimmy Carter>We're just having a good time. <v Jimmy Carter>And this is [applause]. <v Jimmy Carter>I didn't get a good friend and I shall never forget, and I might have <v Jimmy Carter>learned a lot more about Christ this week just by <v Jimmy Carter>being with you. <v Millard Fuller>Well, what we will take is not only back to Georgia, we have people here from 28 states <v Millard Fuller>and two Canadian provinces, and what all of us are going to take back is

<v Millard Fuller>a spirit of enthusiasm. <v Millard Fuller>You can you can hear in the background what we are taking back with us, the excitement <v Millard Fuller>and enthusiasm. And a lot of these people come from cities where there are other habitat <v Millard Fuller>projects. They are going back home all fired up to help eliminate poverty housing <v Millard Fuller>in their city. And this is how the revolution spreads. <v Millard Fuller>We believe by 1996, we'll be in two thousand U.S. <v Millard Fuller>cities and we'll be in 60 countries outside the United States and we'll be building <v Millard Fuller>houses not three a day, as we're doing now in our worldwide program. <v Millard Fuller>A thousand houses this year, but we will be building houses by five, <v Millard Fuller>10, 15 or more an hour. <v Millard Fuller>So it's an exciting concept that's caught on and it's caught on in a really big way here <v Millard Fuller>in Charlotte. And Charlotte, as it is already a shining light and an example to other <v Millard Fuller>projects. And we'll we'll we'll be that and more so in the years to come. <v Abby Flanders>And now, at the end of the project, the familiar sound that had been heard all week. <v Abby Flanders>The victory cry for Habitat rang out over northeast Charlotte. <v Speaker>I suppose the most remarkable thing about the miracle on 19th Street

<v Speaker>is the way 400 people from all across <v Speaker>the country and Canada could come together and <v Speaker>under God's leading achieve what was done here in five days. <v Speaker>The miracle on 19th Street really didn't have anything to do with building houses. <v Speaker>It had something to do with giving some low income <v Speaker>families a break. <v Speaker>But the real miracle was in the hearts of the people. <v Speaker>And I think that. <v Speaker>The toughest thing for for anyone who professes to <v Speaker>be a Christian to do. <v Speaker>Is defined as a way to put <v Speaker>pants on the gospel, to make the gospel come alive and in <v Speaker>their lives and habitat is one of those things that is able to

<v Speaker>do that. <v Speaker>And when you take four or five hundred folks from the Charlotte community <v Speaker>in support and three to four hundred volunteers from all parts of the country <v Speaker>and bring them together, it's God's leading. <v Speaker>That ties this project together and makes it happen. <v Speaker>And that's the miracle. <v Speaker>[song plays]