http://www.charlotte.com/breaking_news/story/369279.html
Monday, Nov 19, 2007 Posted on Mon, Nov. 19, 2007
Home built on sweat, skill and faith
TIM FUNK
The couple from the Congo stood quietly Sunday, smiling as their new friends showered them with books, blessings, T-shirts -- and a brand new Habitat for Humanity house.
"First Interfaith All-Clergy Build" read the T-shirts, commemorating a first for Charlotte and for the country.
The sweat and skills to build the 1,260-square-foot house in west Charlotte were supplied by a Mecklenburg Ministries team that included more than 100 local clergy from 10 faith traditions: Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Unitarian, Mormon, Buddhist, Quaker, and Baha'i. (No jws?)
Local houses of worship also put up $60,000 for the house, which Faustin Kalonji, wife Ngalula Mwady and their four sons will call home.
On Sunday, the builders handed the family a Bible, then an interfaith prayer book, then a copy of the Koran. The prayers and good wishes for them and their house came in several languages: Arabic, Hebrew, Sanskrit, English and French. There was even singing.
"You hear a lot about people of different faiths bickering about who's right and who's wrong," said Ryan Dennison, Habitat for Humanity's site supervisor. "But on this project, I heard conversations about the similarities of different faiths. And as proof, they were able to work together as a team."
The clergy builders got help: from Dennison; from Bob Warf, a Habitat-seasoned lay leader at Myers Park Presbyterian; and from the new homeowners, members of a Jehovah's Witnesses church who immigrated to Charlotte four years ago.
Kalonji, a 40-year-old long-distance delivery driver whose nightly route takes him from Charlotte to West Virginia and back, did some of the heavy lifting on his house. At a towering 6-foot-5, he didn't need a brace to hold up dry wall -- he used his arm.
Wife Mwady, 30, continued putting up siding until a week before she gave birth. Auckley, the couple's newest son, was born Oct. 5, and watched Sunday -- when he wasn't dozing -- from his father's arms.
"Thank you to all the clergy here," said a French-accented Mwady, a seamstress who wore a red and black dress she made herself. "Thank you for your time, energy and love."
Ralph Preston, who worked for Habitat for Humanity International this year, was there Sunday to film the dedication. There have been interfaith Habitat teams and all-clergy Habitat teams, he said, but Charlotte's is the first teaming of clergy from across so many faiths.
The Charlotte project was spearheaded by the Rev. Maria Hanlin, executive director of Mecklenburg Ministries. It started Sept. 6 and continued -- amid temperatures that ranged from 97 to 35 degrees -- until Saturday. Over all, there were 14 1/2 "project days," including an all-women-clergy day.
Some volunteers worked a few days. The Rev. Russ Dean, co-pastor of Park Road Baptist, was there almost every day.
Various houses of worship also sprang for diverse work-day lunches.
The Hindu Center provided Indian cuisine; Temple Israel organized a kosher cookout.
Rabbi Murray Ezring, who worked for two days and offered a Hebrew blessing of the house on Sunday, said the all-clergy project offered two lessons.
"First of all ... we put our prayers into action by praying with our hands, our feet and our backs," said Ezring, from Temple Israel.
"And to bring so many clergy together from so many different faiths ... showed that, together, we can build a beautiful world for those who need one."
