“We are learning from what you guys have taught us, and we all come together as a community, not as a church or a denomination, but as a whole community. We come together and work alongside each other, lock arms to make our hometown our mission field.” David Lewis, co-founder of Earthly Dwellings, shared after a Help Build Hope event to build the walls to the first home in their “ity” community.
The Lewis Family
But to understand David’s excitement, we need to go back to the inspiration for Earthly Dwellings. David Lewis worked in the oil and gas industry and his wife Julie was a nurse when they felt the call to start a mobile pregnancy resource center. After six years of serving mainly young women with little family or resources, they noticed a pattern in their circumstances.
“They lacked Jesus most of all, for the majority of them, and they lacked a man in their life, and then they lacked adequate housing,” explained David. “I can affect the Jesus thing by sharing with them and showing them Jesus. I can affect the housing. I can’t really affect the man in their life, but they will choose that for themselves when they get the other two.” So David and Julie decided to switch their focus to housing and community building.
In their hometown of Chickasha, Oklahoma the couple located a block downtown that would be a prime location for affordable, small-scale housing. “We bought a quarter of a block in the worst part of town, right in the center of town. The houses were falling in and this drug infested, bug infested community. So we bought that, and tore down the eight existing homes.” David shared how their fundraising stalled after this purchase, but what was a setback at the time ended up bringing them to a fruitful partnership.
Finding Help Build Hope
While working on a construction loan, the woman helping with their financing agreement reached out to the Lewis’s about Help Build Hope. As they got to know the ministry, David recalls, “it just seemed like a perfect fit for us. We did our first Help Build Hope Day on April 11th here in Chickasha. And we had 101 volunteers show up to build these homes. It was amazing, like a bunch of ants running over each other and laughing and hugging along the way. Since then, we have had thousands of volunteer hours. It activated the whole community in a way that is exactly what we needed.”
Community engagement is a central part of the “ity” community. The name “ity” comes from the suffix of their core values: walkability, visibility, community, accountability, responsibility, sustainability, repeatability. Julie was immediately inspired by the same values that Help Build Hope promotes, “The whole dynamic of Help Build Hope was exactly what we were trying to create but didn’t know how to go about it. This is the perfect model. This is what we need to bring to our community to show them how it can be done.”
“It gave the volunteers pride in knowing that they helped build a community to better our community,” continued Julie, “to help somebody get into a home that’s like they have themselves. Helped somebody work toward stability, belonging, and community.” And that outlook has continued throughout the construction process. “This community was once a drug haven, and the same people still walk through our construction site. We speak to them, we know them by name, and they now know us by name. They’re like, ‘oh, hey. How are you today?’ Nobody else talks to them all day long. So it is really helping change the atmosphere in that section of town. And the neighbors are starting to notice.”
Part of the Community
David and Julie have learned a lot about the community while constructing their tiny homes. What they initially intended as transitional housing for at-risk young adults is being adjusted as they discover the immediate needs of the community. David shared, “Everybody that comes up talks to us is older and they’re retired or they’re close to retirement and they want to live there.” Due to the homes’ proximity to the grocery store, small size, and affordable rent, the demographic they were looking for changed.
“We’re a low-income town with a lot of elderly who are renting properties that just keep skyrocketing on the rent,” explained Julie. Retired individuals have to live on a fixed income that doesn’t change with rising prices, “so when we started building new and small, they’re only 416ft², they were so excited about it!”
The Lewis’s continue to talk with the community, seeing how they can best serve through these tiny homes. Regardless, their goal is to get the church and community closely involved in the project all the way from construction to adopting the homes and residents. Julie shared her hope that churches who adopt the homes will develop relationships with the residents, “to help get them connected to a church, get involved in the community, provide emotional support and encouragement. And even help with furniture and needed items.”
David concludes with a commitment to keep moving forward with God’s calling, “Our vision for Earthly Dwellings is not just to build these eight homes and be done. Like I always tell people, what if there’s 80 people that need homes. What if there’s 800? What if there’s 8000? What if there’s 8 million? We’ve got to keep growing. And that’s the repeatability factor of this is how do we grow this and keep it moving forward. And really change the way people look at not just housing but how they interact with their neighbors and those less fortunate.”
Construction continues in Chickasha and the ity community is starting to take shape. You can still get involved with the construction – find out more at earthlydwellings.org
Building partnerships, building community, building relationships, and building affordable homes, that’s what we are about at Help Build Hope. Our events provide a excellent opportunity for teaching the importance of worship, service, and discipleship within the body of Christ.
Interested in hosting a build event or partnering with Help Build Hope for your organization? Find out more and contact us at helpbuildhope.com
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