The life of the community that gathers in Jesus’ name should look something like Jesus’ own life looked. So, like Jesus, we worship our unseen Father, we pray and we do the kinds of service to others that Jesus did. Eddy and Dana Fowler-Lindner, seminary classmates of mine, want to bring the face of the church to King County with a ministry that provides three things all at once: 1) providing truly affordable housing 2) training persons to become skilled building contractors, 3) offering low cost development of public land. The ministry is new, innovative, daring and workable. It is called Response Ability Builders.
Eddy’s idea was born when he went to Florida to help people whose housing was destroyed by Hurricane Andrew. Eddy developed and patented a “little house”, built on jigs by volunteers, that met all necessary building codes, was movable, self -contained and eco friendly. Perhaps most staggering of all, volunteers built 300 houses in an average of 17 person hours per house. That’s really fast.
The plan for King County is this: the Fowler-Lindners live in a “little house” (cute and comfortable as can be!) on 10 acres on Tiger Mountain, in Issaquah. They offer this property to Response Ability Builders who is building a larger “earth structure” that will house the first 6 homeless youth. These youth will build a little house village on site, while setting up jigs to build other “little houses” for others. The youth will get to keep their own little house after a period of apprenticeship, which is simultaneously a service to others in two ways: 1) by helping them to learn to build their own homes 2) serve in various Response Ability Builders projects. An example of such a project might be developing a public park for the county or city at a much lower cost than other contractors would need to charge.
The possibilities for this ministry to open up affordable housing are far greater that I can say in this article. I am excited about it and serve as the board’s president. I ask for your prayers for this ministry. I’ll keep you posted about its progress. -- Jami
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