Have you ever thought that you would like to build a home for a family in need? You can!
Having facilitated many house builds with teams of friends, coworkers, family members, businesses, schools and churches that were led by men, women, and people ranging in age I can confidently say that you can do this. A successful build is led by someone with a heart to serve and rally others to the cause of changing a families future. In the process of planning, building your team, raising funds, traveling, constructing the home, and completing the task you will grow closer to your team members, donors and your recipient family. You will do all that while having a great time experiencing a different culture and learning about how others live. As our motto states “Build Homes / Change Lives”. That is what it is all about. Your reaching out in love to change a families future leads to everyone having a transformational experience. God is faithful to everyone involved and love transforms lives!
“It was easy to mobilize a team around the vision of tangibly changing a family’s life. Now that we’ve gone and experienced it firsthand, all the team members are talking it up back in our church and we’ve already got more people interested in the next trip than we know what to do with!” David Urban – Pastor / www.i90church.com
“Building a house in Roatan through Dwellings was a life changing experience for my family. I recommend Dwellings to anyone who wants to make a life changing, positive difference in someone’s life. Thank you Tom for creating this organization and making dreams come true for so many people in need of shelter. God Bless You!!!!” Tina Jacobsen / Business owner / Portland Oregon
4 – 6 Months in Advance of the Build
It can be done in less time but normally you will want to start planning a minimum of 4 – 6 months out from the build date. We have several web pages of information and helps.
Let us know if you are interested. There is a contact form to message us.
Choose a recipient family in Roatan, Cuba or Mexico.
Recruit your team.
Start a Funding page and start raising the construction funds.
Covers ground fees and airline arrangements.
Getting others involved.
Today is the day to get started. Let’s start planning a build together. Let us know of your interest so we can do this together. Like Mother Theresa said…”I can do things you cannot do, You can do things I cannot do. Together we can do great things.”
Here is what past participants have said…
Yelp review by Gail Orsillo – “I have participated in four builds over the past several years with Dwellings, all on the beautiful island of Roatan, Honduras. Every time I go, I think “This is the best trip ever!” And every time, it keeps getting better. Tom Hackett and his team do an excellent job of finding families, interviewing them to determine their needs, and matching them up with teams who want to do a build. When the teams arrive in Roatan, all of the details are already taken care of: lodging, materials, meals, are all ready to go and you can get right to building without delay. By far, the best part of the builds is meeting the families and getting to know them while you build together. Even if you don’t speak the same language, it doesn’t matter. By the end of the week, you will all be laughing together and feel like you are all family. Tom always makes sure there is a bilingual team member around to help communication go smoothly. Another awesome thing about Dwellings builds is that you get an introduction to another culture and get to spend your week in a beautiful place with amazing people, eating delicious food. I’m very excited that Dwellings is doing builds in other places as well. There is so much need for safe, secure housing in many parts of the world, and Dwellings does an excellent job of meeting that need in a way that benefits everyone involved.”
Others:
• “Delivering the finished home to Jairo and Paula was an experience that I’ll never forget. I doubt that they ever would have been able to afford a home on their own and even if they had I feel the Dwellings home was probably higher quality. They were just so happy and so grateful. Wonderful people.”
• “Learning about the families daily lives – what the house meant to them. Making lifelong friends and sharing the joy of our hard work.”
• “Each time is different, but seeing how other families near the builds are drawn to the activities and how they always become part of the team and our hearts!”
• “I love the children that I encounter on a build. They touch my heart to the core. Holding infants to handing out clothes to pounding nails next to them to eating beside them to see them watching us. It’s all so special.”
• “Of course, spending time with all of my family was special for such a great cause. Regarding relationships created in the build, I really enjoyed working with Giovanni. I believe by the end, he had enough trust in me to allow me to work with minimal supervision. This helped him out with his time allocation.”
Some responses to our survey questions after the build. Now that you are home, what have you taken with you that you can apply to your life?
• “Appreciation for all that we have and take for granted. Have downsized and re-prioritized my life. People, relationships, sharing, giving to others when you can – that is what matters.”
• “I am always shocked when I come home and see how much of everything I have and they have so little. Time again to readjust my values of what is really important”
• “How much good can be done and how people’s lives can be changed through a well- organized and well thought-out ministry.”
• “My whole life has been changed. I want my children to understand how easy it is to effect others in a positive way I am so blessed and will try to help as many people as I can. Been interesting to see our life through the eyes of Karla. So much here we take for granted.”
• “Each time I have come away with the desire to go back again and build. It has made me so grateful to our Lord and savior Jesus, that he gives me strength and a loving heart to want to help so many others that can’t help themselves.”
• “I recognized the gratitude of people who receive a significant gift is beyond measure. Small sacrifices in my life have such a huge impact in the lives of other people. In my interaction with the Euceda family, I came to realize happiness does not depend on wealth or materialist possessions. Rather, love of family and faith in God really is the path to happiness. Something we are all told and aspire to achieve, but never really believe. This adventure reinforced this tenet.”
• “I think I’m a little more confident to try new things that I know nothing about.”
• “Hands down the thing that I think every day and that I hope my kids took with them after the build is that they may not be able to change the world, but they can change someone’s world.”
Some one liners from past participants…
“Dwellings changes the lives from the young to the old by providing a home to call your own.”
“Make a difference and have a great time doing it!”
“Dwellings not only changes lives but it touches hearts!”
“A powerful experience that changes lives, on both sides of the hammer.”
“Working with Dwellings to build a home was incredibly fulfilling.”
“Dwellings helped us accomplish it, when we weren’t sure we could.”
“You may not be able to change the world, but you can change someone’s world.”
“Take action! Do something great for somebody!”
"Working with Dwellings let me play a part in changing the future of a family, a community, a country.”
Don Ross shares his perspective as a local pastor. – What this build did for the people who worked, the people who sent them and for our whole church was the surprising part. Selfish people became generous people, giving up their vacation time to go and build. Hard hearts became soft as they looked away from their own situation and sought to help others. Lovers of money became lovers of people, as they gave sacrificially to the build.
Families that have received homes have said…
• Wendy, "Before receiving my home, I felt forsaken, helpless, extremely stressful. Once I received my home, it was like seeing a light at the end of a tunnel. Now it is practically indescribable the joy and peace I feel."
• Fernando says "FREEDOM, is the best word that can describe the impact of my home in my life. I feel free to bring whoever I want to, I can come and go from my home whenever I want to, my children can scream, play, and cry whenever they want to.Heidy reports ̈When I received the keys of my home in my hands, it still did not seem real to me. I felt I was dreaming. At the beginning I could not even sleep, not because I felt uncomfortable but because I still did not believe I was living in a real house for the first time."
• Lilian Hernandez, "I will be forever thankful for the love and compassion that Mr. Scott, his family and his friends demonstrated to us through our home. They did not only provide a home for me and my girls, but they also provided peace to our lives."
• Kiandra, "One aspect of my life that was absolutely impacted was my focus in my studies. Before getting my home I could not be focused in my studies, because I was always worried for my mom. Every single day I observed how my mom sacrifice working day and night just to give a better life than the one she had."
• Raquel, "One of the best words that could define our lives before getting our home is, hopeless. ̈ Raquel said ̈Our lives were like at the end of a tunnel, made no sense, we had no hope. However, thanks to a merciful and compassionate team, they made our lives bright in that darkness of that tunnel. ̈Jenny and Jeysi, ̈We love our home, because we have a place for everything! A place to sleep, to play, to cook and to have fun, it is just what we dreamed about. "
• Raquel, "One of the best words that could define our lives before getting our home is, hopeless. ̈ Raquel said ̈Our lives were like at the end of a tunnel, made no sense, we had no hope. However, thanks to a merciful and compassionate team, they made our lives bright in that darkness of that tunnel. ̈Jenny and Jeysi, ̈We love our home, because we have a place for everything! A place to sleep, to play, to cook and to have fun, it is just what we dreamed about. "
• “No words are enough to describe our gratefulness for getting such an amazing, fantastic, comfortable home”.
•Christian, "The week you built my home, was literally the best week in my whole life."
• Raquel, "One of the best words that could define our lives before getting our home is, hopeless. ̈ Raquel said ̈Our lives were like at the end of a tunnel, made no sense, we had no hope. However, thanks to a merciful and compassionate team, they made our lives bright in that darkness of that tunnel. ̈Jenny and Jeysi, ̈We love our home, because we have a place for everything! A place to sleep, to play, to cook and to have fun, it is just what we dreamed about. "
• Merlin, “Getting a NEW HOUSE was like getting a NEW LIFE. Before getting my home, I cried every once in a while because I was sad and desperate because of my family’s condition of living. After getting my home, I still cry once in a while, not because I am sad and desperate but because I am happy, thankful and MOST IMPORTANT, I am BLESSED. My heart is filled with joy when I see my children sleeping in a bed and not on the floor, when I see them eating in a clean dining room and not having to sit on the dirt with all the bugs around them, but my heart is even filled with more joy and peace knowing that I am the owner of such a gorgeous home.”
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