Life That Evolves South and Spent a Lot of Time Traveling New Chaplain Dianne Hall Through Mississippi and Louisiana

ezrA mIllsteIn ezrA mIllsteIn Chaquidra Martin is able to put her daughter, Laila Young, in a good pre-kindergarten program with money she has saved on housing costs since mov- A newsletter for the staff of Habitat for Humanity International • March 19, 2010 ing into her Habitat home in New Orleans. Habichat HAcker steffAn The resilient triumph Hope and joy abound among Habitat families on the U.S. Gulf Coast By Teresa K. Weaver NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana—Since joining Habitat for Humanity Inter- national in 2007, photographer Ezra Millstein and I have made more than a dozen reporting trips to the U.S. Gulf Coast. The family that runs Desporte & Sons Seafood in Biloxi, Mississippi, knows to start frying up extra oysters whenever they see our big blue Habitat Nissan Titan pull into the parking lot. I know this part of the country fairly well, having grown up in the life that evolves South and spent a lot of time traveling New chaplain Dianne Hall through Mississippi and Louisiana. has shared in Habitat’s journey Seeing it from a fresh perspective— through the eyes of Habitat—has only deepened my appreciation of how By Susan Stevenson demonstrates more than the theory of unique these people of the Gulf are. servant leadership; it shows an ongoing Their resilience and joie de vivre are If you do not know the new chaplain, willingness to serve God with a com- mythic. Going back to see some of the Dianne Hall, then you need to meet mitment that has grown and changed same families over the course of three this living lesson in Habitat for Human- as she and Habitat have changed. She years—seeing how much can change ity’s past and future. has felt the joy as well as the pain, sac- in such a short time—has helped us Hall’s life and the growth of Habitat rifice and everyday frustrations of the really grasp how Habitat fits into that seem parallel. She has been closely as- work of Habitat as she raised a family dynamic of hope and recovery. sociated with the ministry since 1982, and faced her husband’s death. Laila Young was 3 when we first when she and her late husband, Tom, She calls hers a life that evolves: One met her and her mother, Chaquidra exponentially grew the Habitat full- step leads to the next and then the next. Martin, in 2008. They were living in an time staff of four—“with Clive (Rainey) “Everything I have done has led me apartment owned by a relative in a cor- overseas”—by arriving in Americus. to this place where I am today,” she says. ner of New Orleans’ Upper Ninth Ward It’s not so much that her life Her promotion to chaplain evolved from that looked like a bombed-out war depended on Habitat, but more that a decision four years ago to work for zone, even three years after Hurricane Habitat has depended on her. Her path Habitat and take on three years of study Katrina rolled through. continued on page 2 continued on page 3 1 Habichat — March 19, 2010 Hall the street,” Habitat for Humanity. Education of Young Children accredita- “Tom and I took the high school tion through the National Academy of continued from page 1 students on a mission trip. We dug Early Childhood Programs. footings for houses,” she said, and “We tried to give children a real to become an ordained Episcopal deacon. Tom was impressed. After bringing love of learning. My goal was that none She says that as chaplain, “I want students on a few more mission trips of our students would grow up to be to be present with people in the good and starting the 13th Habitat affiliate in Habitat homeowners,” she said. times, the hard times and the in- Pickens County, S.C., the couple made In July 2008, Habitat stopped running between times. I feel a real need to let the move to Habitat—a very different the school, but it still exists in Americus people know other people at Habitat organization from the one a new em- and has a waiting list for students. care about them and their families.” ployee might find Dianne cher- But her journey and her passion for at HFHI in 2010. ishes many success the people of Habitat really start with a “We really de- stories from her passion for her own family. pended on volun- A book that helped students. One is Her father was the associational min- teers. Most would Dianne Hall’s journey: about the son of ister for 90 Baptist churches in Raleigh, give us a year or at “Mere Christianity” by C.S. a nurse who was N.C. Her mother worked part time at a least three months. Lewis. “It helped me think a single mother. Baptist bookstore, but was always home We wouldn’t have through questions like: Are “He got so excited when Dianne, her twin brother, David, existed without these doctrines true? Is holi- about reading that and her late sister, Virginia, came home. them,” she said. ness here? Does my conscience when he went “My father was very much for the “We were a real move me toward this? So often home his grand- underdog,“ Dianne said. “He taught us family. We grew a we fail to practice ourselves mother wanted to to always try to be there for people, to garden together. the kind of behavior we expect learn to read, too. always provide for people in need. He We had potluck from others. We have all kinds So he taught her,” made it clear we needed to make the the day before pay- of excuses. But Christ calls us Dianne said. world a better place.” day. No one would to love as he has loved, and we “I ran into the The Baptist tradition brought her have had enough must figure out for ourselves mom and her son, to Mars Hill College, a private Baptist food without it.” how to do it.” now six-foot-plus. school near Asheville, N.C. When she Dianne worked He had just gradu- arrived, the student body president, Tom for First Baptist in ated from law Hall, came to greet her freshman class. Americus, running school. His mom “I liked him the first time I saw him, a mother’s-day-out program to add to told me she had had to struggle so and he must have felt the same way about resources for her three children: Robert, much that without Educare his success me,” she said. “Within a week we were Chris and Erin. But some local families wouldn’t have been possible.” dating, and it became clear to everyone refused to let their children play with In caring for her students, she says, “I that it would last for a long, long time.” the children of Habitat staff because the began to move into a pastoral role.” That So Dianne and Tom juggled a long- fledgling ministry was not nearly as well- led her to her studies and her new job distance romance after he graduated and received as it is today. with Habitat. Dianne became assistant went to seminary at Andover Newton So when Habitat needed a school chaplain at HFHI after the school was Theological School in Massachusetts. for children of parents who were train- divested. She became HFHI chap- The summer after Dianne graduated, ing for international work, Dianne lain this month after former chaplain the couple married. Tom took a job with became the director of Educare. Rendell Day left to pastor a church in Earl Street Baptist in Greenville, S.C., Educare served about 140 chil- Kathmandu, Nepal. and Dianne taught high school science dren from 6 weeks to 12 years old. Its She also works as a deacon at St. and home economics. students were the children of Habitat Paul Episcopal Church in Albany. Later Tom moved to First Baptist in employees or homeowners or were And, of course, she keeps track of her Clemson, S.C. The couple led an annual children at risk in the community. five grandchildren. trip for high school students at the Through Habitat, Dianne and her “I wake up in the morning excited church, and Tom wanted to give them staff of more than 20 created an edu- to go to work,” she said. “It’s a wonder- something more than a middle-class cational experience that won national ful feeling.” experience. So they called Koinonia. recognition. Educare was named a Koinonia couldn’t take them, but “they “Center of Distinction” in Georgia and Susan Stevenson is director of program suggested this new organization down received National Association for the communications. 2 Habichat — March 19, 2010 Jason Honore and porch looking out at your neighbors.” his wife, Krystle, lost everything but About half an hour away, in Slidell, a few days’ worth three new homeowners are spending of clothes when Hurricane Katrina de- a Sunday afternoon around a long, stroyed their home handcrafted table that Ralph Stanley, in New Orleans’ 71, salvaged from the ruins of his New Ninth Ward.The hardest part of the Orleans home after Katrina. months and years Now a widower, Stanley, a retired that followed was sending their daugh- outdoor advertising man who plays ter, Dominiece, then ezrA mIllsteIn ezrA mIllsteIn electric guitar and rides a tomato-red only 5, to live with motorcycle, is surrounded by children. her grandmother in Baton Rouge. Next-door neighbor Carla Campo has three children: Nate, 11; Ryan, 9; and Angel, who turns 5 in a week.

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