Published: November 01, 2009 12:50 am      

WOLCOTT: Revivied by Habitat's sea of goodwill

LOCKPORT — Last Sunday morning came down hard, but Sunday afternoon brightened the day. En route to work, the radio reported 147 people killed in Baghdad suicide bombings. At the police station, a man waited for his son to be released from jail.

“This is the first and last time your mother and I will bail you out,” he said. The young man bowed his head. I felt sick for the father and the son.

A few hours later, I was in the basement of a new house on Lower Lake Road in Somerset with more than 100 people. It’s the closest I’ve been to a revival since watching “Elmer Gantry” with Burt Lancaster. I was revived.

The Habitat for Humanity projects are always uplifting, but the Somerset example of the ecumenical Christian housing ministry was even more so. The cooperation among different religious denominations in Eastern Niagara County was not extraordinary, because they do it every year, but No. 14 had an cheerful glow.

The mood was not heavy, but light. Everything was ready, although the singing of “Bless This House” needed a little work.

Taskmaster Carl Stieffenhofer seemed to want to stay in the background, but the big bearded man was hard to miss. When the building supervisor spoke, people listened and his few words drew a few laughs. He asked what the population of Somerset was and the supervisor said about 3,000. Stieffenhofer wanted to thank 2,999.

When Stieffenhofer finally came to the front, he beamed and hugged while getting an apple pie from new homeowner Tina Page.

Folks feel good when they’re doing good, it’s as simple as that.

Every denomination you could name was represented, according to the Rev. J. Fay Cleveland, president of Habitat for Humanity, Lockport. The former pastor of Emmanuel United Methodist Church joked about being four or five times retired.

The seven Somerset churches took part: Faith United of Barker, County Line United Methodist, St. John’s Lutheran, West Somerset Baptist, St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church, the Barker Assembly of God and the Quaker Road United Methodist. The Newfane Initiative had 12 churches involved.

“Most all participated in one way or another,” Cleveland said. “They made meals for volunteers, provided funds for construction and had volunteers work on the house.”

Habitat for Humanity was founded in 1976 in Americus, Ga. and its founders were awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. It’s become an international movement and has built more than 300,000 homes.

Cleveland contacted 50 churches in Eastern Niagara County and said, “The neat thing about Habitat is that it draws support from main-line Protestants, Roman Catholics and Protestant Evangelical churches. ... The intangible is the tremendous sea of goodwill.”

Contact reporter Bill Wolcott

at 439-9222, ext. 6246.