Habitat for Humanity

Woodland Baptist Church will be participating in another Habitat for Humanity build. Partnering with a cluster of Lutheran churches, we will have the opportunity to help build sustainable housing for a family here in our home of San Antonio!

Build Dates: Saturdays from September 9 – November 11.

We hope you can help out this fall by helping a family in need with a hand up.

Please contact Phil Sagebiel with questions.

Olga Manck is a loving grandmother who has taken on the responsibility of caring for her three grandchildren. Despite facing challenges, she never gave up on her dream of providing them a better place to live. After applying for the program five times, she was finally approved for the Habitat program, and it was near impossible to withhold her joy. When asked why she continued to apply even through the face of rejection, Olga knew this was the path to give her grandkids the situation she couldn’t have while growing up.

Living in an area plagued by high crime, Olga longs to give her grand-babies a safe and secure home. Mold has been a constant issue in her current residence, exacerbating her two grandchildren’s asthma health problems. She eagerly awaits the day when they can move into a new home, free from mold, and hopes it will alleviate their allergies and improve their health. With the prospect of a Habitat home, she envisions a peaceful and clean outdoor space where her grandkids can play freely with the swing set she intends to buy.

The journey has been arduous, but Olga’s determination and love for her grandkids have brought her to this remarkable milestone. With a Habitat home, she can finally provide them with the stable and nurturing environment they deserve.

Our Mission

Habitat for Humanity of San Antonio is an ecumenical Christian non-profit housing organization working in partnership with God’s people in need to build modest, decent and affordable houses without interest or profit, thereby witnessing God’s love in action. Seeking to put God’s love into action, Habitat for Humanity of San Antonio brings people together to build homes, communities and hope.

What We Do

We Build for Better! Habitat for Humanity of San Antonio works with low-income families who would not otherwise be able to afford a home. We partner with hardworking families in need and help them build affordable homes for themselves and their families at no interest and no profit. We are not a charity or a “hand-out” program, but rather we help families help themselves.  We are a hand-up, not a hand-out!

What Woodland Does

Since 2004, Woodland has sponsored or co-sponsored 16 homes in partnership with families in need. Woodland provides funds via the budget and provides volunteers to help build each home. Our builds happen each year in the Fall—usually 8 consecutive Saturdays.

Contact Phil Sagebiel for more information: philsage747@gmail.com

How Habitat for Humanity Meets The Need Through Radical Common Sense

Radical

• The goal is radical — to eliminate poverty housing because every family, every person, should have, as a minimum, a simple, decent place to live
• The finance plan is radical — no profit, no interest. In the Western world, the best interest rate is charged to the wealthiest people and the highest interest rate to the poor. Habitat sells homes to qualifying poor families at cost and charges no interest on a 20 year mortgage. This is biblical.
• Habitat employs the “theology of the hammer” which teaches that true religion must be more than singing and talking. Action is required. “My children, our love should not be just words and talk; it must be true love, which shows itself in action.” 1 John 3:19

Common Sense

• It is the very essence of common sense that people who get sleepy at night should have a good place in which to sleep on terms they can afford to pay.
• It is common sense that children, especially, should have decent housing, so they can grow up to be all that God intended.
• It is common sense that people of faith should work together to express God’s love in a program that is agreed upon.
• It is common sense that people should be helped in a way that does not foster dependency. That is why Habitat does not give away houses. That’s why prospective homeowners mustt be working and qualify for the potential mortgage payment and must put in 300 or more hours of “sweat equity” labor building their own house and houses for others. Then, when the house is finished, the family moves in and repays the no-interst montage over 20 years. Habitat offers a hand up, not a hand out. This program does not foster dependency.
• The mortgage payments received from the homeowners are used to build homes also. Twelve homes built by HFHSA in 2014 will be funded by mortgage payments.

More About Habitat for Humanity of San Antonio

• HFHSA is an ecumenical Christian non-profit housing organization working in partnership with God’s people in need to build simple, decent and affordable houses without interest or profit, thereby witnessing God’s love in action. Habitat was conceived by a Baptist theologian named Dr. Clarence Jordan. Churches of all Christian denominations are involved in sponsoring houses.
• HFHSA works with low-income families who would not otherwise be able to afford a house. HFHSA helps families help themselves. The families’ income is 25% to 60% of the area median income. No other organization in San Antonio works with families having income this low.
• More than 10,000 volunteers assist in various HFHSA activities each year.
• HFHSA has build over 850 homes in San Antonio.

Through the Habitat for Humanity of San Antonio ministry, Woodland has given outside of itself, grown through tangible faith in action and camaraderie, practiced Radical Common Sense, and changed the lives of eight families, including 21 children. The children of these families are more likely to graduate from high school, attend college, and have less adolescent problems due to living in an owned home verses government or rental housing. The families are changed dramatically for generations to come!