Recently named Habitat for Humanity CEO Jonathan Reckford had not even officially begun his tenure with the organization when Hurricane Katrina struck. He has been on the fast track ever since.

Tragedies Shine Spotlight on the Daily Grind

by Jonathan Reckford

Habitat for Humanity's vision is a world where everyone has a decent place to live. It's an audacious goal, one that constantly humbles and challenges me, and a goal, certainly, that makes Habitat leaders grateful on a daily basis that we can turn for strength to a loving God and to the many caring people around the world who dare to embrace this vision with us.

Over the course of 10 days this fall, I would find myself hammering on a house frame in Rockefeller Plaza in New York City; planting a tree with a hopeful new homeowner family; lamenting, on World Habitat Day, the manmade catastrophe of hope-robbing urban slums; submitting Hurricane Katrina testimony to Congress; attending a U.S. regional conference, and celebrating with, and learning from, Habitat affiliate leaders who work day in and day out to rid their communities of poverty housing; and within hours, watching news reports of an earthquake halfway around the world that had killed tens of thousands and left untold more homeless.

So much joy, so much sorrow. So much real life. It is in our humanity, our humanness, that we can reach out to one another in hope, in commitment, in need and in gratitude. And that is what we seek to do in Habitat for Humanity. We extend a hand of hope, a hand of help. And we reach out, looking for other helping hands to be part of the miracle.

The house frames built that week in New York City and Los Angeles and Jackson, Miss., would be loaded onto trucks for shipment to Louisiana.

Within days, a house frame built on Rockefeller Plaza would rise again and be completed in Slidell, La., ready to welcome a family made homeless by Hurricane Katrina. I had the privilege of working in Covington, La., with Jackie Collins and her son Miami on what will be their new home. One house. One family. But a much larger sign of hope for a hurting region.

When Habitat for Humanity took on the challenge of helping rebuild communities devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita--a program we are calling Operation Home Delivery-it was with a twofold commitment: first, to help hurting families, and, second, to use the lessons from that unprecedented response to accelerate our overall global house-building program.

It would be too easy to let the commitments of assisting tsunami-affected families in Asia and hurricane-affected families in the U.S. South divert us from work we have to do elsewhere. But we cannot let that happen.

Our response to those natural disasters, and the wonderful relationships that response is opening up, can and must be built upon to serve ever more families in desperate need of affordable housing.

I said on World Habitat Day that if any good can come out of tragedies such as last December's tsunami and this summer's hurricanes, it is that these disasters reveal for many a harsh reality they typically try to ignore: the heartache, frustration and difficulties of daily life when one doesn't have a safe, decent place to call home.

As we rebuild following these terrible disasters, we must not forget the millions of families around the world--even in the United States, indeed right in our own communities--who have never had a safe, decent home. These are the silent sufferers. Their daily struggles bring no media spotlight, no celebrity telethons to support them.

That, too, is a disaster. We cannot look away.