On Saturday, April 18th, Habitat Board Member, David Harrington began his travels to Nicaragua to build homes through the “Thrivent Builds with Habitat” coalition. “I’m very excited about the chance to make a difference… both at home and in an international setting,” said David.
David was identified and selected for this opportunity through his involvement with Habitat for Humanity of Ventura County and would love to “lead” a global build in 2016.
NEWS RELEASE
Ventura County resident returns from home-building trip to Nicaragua
Powerful volunteer experience has David Harrington planning to return on another Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity trip
Simi Valley, Calif (May, 2015) —David Harrington views life from a different perspective after working side-by-side with Nicaraguan families during an April Thrivent Builds Worldwide trip. David fully expected to work hard building homes and changing the lives of Nicaraguan families. While these expectations were met, it came as a surprise that he was also personally and strongly impacted by the experience.
“I went on this international volunteer trip to help others, but I, too, was blessed,” Harrington said. “Service brings out the best in us—that’s the beauty in volunteering. You get the focus off yourself.”
Harrington, a Thrivent Financial advisor serving Christians and their family members in Ventura County, traveled to Nicaragua with other Thrivent Financial representatives and employees from across the United States. Harrington was selected to represent his colleagues from the Southwest Region on this team because he demonstrated notable performance, passion for volunteering with members, and drive to help people become financially secure. Unlike regular days at the office helping people with their financial security, the Thrivent Financial representatives put a new twist on their role in Nicaragua painting, carrying rock, mixing concrete and mortar by hand, and bending rebar to help enable families to afford to buy a safe, new home.
From April 18th – 26th, 2015, the team helped construct homes in the Central American country. Thrivent Financial sends teams each year to support the mission of Habitat for Humanity Nicaragua and has encouraged Thrivent members and others to volunteer in Nicaragua to help make the dream of home ownership a reality for local families. As a fraternal benefit society, a unique type of not-for-profit membership organization, Thrivent Financial focuses on both financial security as well as caring for others. This program is one example of how Thrivent Financial and its members work together to help people.
As the homes were built, relationships grew with the local people. The team enjoyed building with the Habitat Nicaragua partner families who will live in the homes. These families have to apply for and purchase the Habitat houses, just like in the United States, and put in sweat equity before they can move in.
“Too many Nicaraguans live in substandard housing, and by our American standards, they have very little,” said Harrington. “Despite having few worldly possessions, the Nicaraguans I met displayed a wealth of spirit, love and generosity.”
The experience in Central America invigorated Harrington, and he plans to share this experience with as many people as possible to raise awareness of the burden of poverty housing and encourage others to get involved in similar service work. Thrivent Builds Worldwide works in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity around the world. Harrington is planning to return to Nicaragua in the fall of 2016 to build more homes. He is asking people in the community to join him. Anyone interested in going on the trip may contact David at 805-484-0081.
“There was great satisfaction in helping families build one of the most basic human needs—a roof over their heads,” said Harrington.
To learn more, visit www.thriventbuilds.com/worldwide and read the 2015 team blog athttp://thriventnicaraguaworldwidebuild2015.blogspot.com/
Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity is a multi-year, multi-million dollar mission partnership between Thrivent Financial and Habitat for Humanity International. Thrivent Builds is designed to involve Thrivent members and Christians in helping provide a “hand up” to people in need of affordable housing, offering them a path to greater economic independence. Excluding government funding, Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity is Habitat’s largest single source of funding, constructing and repairing more than 4,000 homes in the U.S. and around the world since 2005. For more information, visit ThriventBuilds.com.
About Thrivent Financial
Thrivent Financial is a financial services organization that helps Christians be wise with money and live generously. We offer a broad range of products and services—including life insurance, annuities and mutual funds—along with guidance from financial representatives nationwide. For more than a century we’ve helped our nearly 2.4 million member-owners make wise money choices that reflect their values, and we provide opportunities for them to be even more generous where they live, work and worship. For more information, visitThrivent.com. Also, you can find us on Facebook and Twitter.
CONTACTS:
- David Harrington, Phone: 805-484-0081, Email: david.harrington@thrivent.com
