Abrams Memorial King's Apostle Holiness Church

Bethel Wesleyan Church

Christ Episcopal Church

Christ United Methodist Church

Church of the Brethren

First Church of God

First Wesleyan Church

His Lighthouse Fellowship Church

Immaculate Conception Catholic Church

Immanuel Lutheran Church

Living Waters Assembly

Park Lane Church of God

Replanted Zion Methodist Church

Ridgely United Methodist Church

St. Benedict's/St. Elizabeth's Catholic Church

St. Luke's United Methodist Church

Union Bethel AME Church

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship

United Concerned Christians

Zion United Methodist Church

 

'Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:16

          A strength of Habitat for Humanity is its network of partnerships, and no partnership is more important than that between the local Habitat affiliate and the churches in its community. Habitat is a Christian, faith-based organization dedicated to preaching the "Gospel of the Hammer" in providing adequate, affordable housing to God's children in need Church relations are essential to that work.

          While Caroline County Habitat has had church partnerships from its beginning, we have been working over the past few years to renew and revitalize and expand those partnerships. Many in our community have been unaware of our Christian identity; some, in fact, thought Habitat was a government "welfare" program. It is necessary that we continually repeat our message in order to encourage support and involvement from the Christian community. Spreading that message can be done most efficiently and effectively through churches and their congregations.

          Establishing and maintaining partnerships with local churches is the work of the Habitat Church Relations Committee whose members visit with pastors and lay leaders to explain our mission and ask that they consider active partnership. First, and most important, we ask for prayerful support of our work in their community. Beyond that, we ask for volunteer help and, where possible, financial or material contributions.

          The response has been gratifying. In Caroline County twenty-seven churches have agreed to be formally recognized as Partner Churches. From among those have come volunteers to help with mailings, organize monthly Saturday breakfasts, provide lunches for site workers, raise funds for house construction, donate materials, or work on the construction site.

          To say that we are thankful for this response and involvement can be misleading in that it may imply gratitude for help given to Habitat when, in fact, it is help given directly to members of our community. When one Habitat volunteer was thanked recently the response was "This is what we're put here to do."

          There are in the neighborhood of seventy churches in Caroline County and uncounted families in need of the kind of Christian assistance Habitat has the potential to provide. That potential depends on Church Partners.