Our team celebrated a wall raising this morning with support from BMW, the Habitat Spartanburg affiliate and the Greenville County Redevelopment Authority.
It is the first of four homes we will building in Greer, but there was something just a little more going on today. This was the last wall raising we will have with Monroe Free as our CEO. He is retiring at the end of the year, and LaTonya Phillips will be guiding us into our future.
There was something fitting that it threatened to rain this morning. As BMW associates, our staff and our community partners walked gingerly over straw strewn upon the muddy cakes of turf, Monroe remembered how it rained at his first Habitat dedication years ago.
The owners asked everyone to take off their shoes because they obviously didn’t want mud dragged through their new home. As people stood in their socks and bare feet, Monroe remembered the Bible. Not surprising when you know Monroe. He remembered Moses and the Burning Bush, and how Moses took off his shoes because he was walking upon on Holy Ground. Monroe likened the dedication of a home to being on Holy Ground, and it made sense because a new Habitat home transforms lives.
He then reminded everyone today that while were again on the Holy Ground today, they didn’t have to walk barefoot in the mud.
