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Faith Build

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Faith Build Kickoff Celebration 

We are breaking gound for our 75th home for Humberto and Mireya and their family on August 24, 2024. We’ll start the day with an hour of networking and a light breakfast at 9:00am, with the event kicking off at 10:00am. Please be sure to invite your pastors, friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors to join us!

For more information about the event, contact Barbara Zegiel at 630-206-5038 or b.zegiel@foxvalleyhabitat.org.

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Read Humberto & Mireya's Story Here
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Faith Build Home 2022

We celebrated the home dedication for Cristal and her boys in December of 2022. The ceremony featured prayers, housewarming gifts and presentation of a ceremonial house key. Welcome home Cristal!

Click here to Read Cristal's Journey

Fox Valley Habitat is a Christian housing ministry that believes in empowering working low-income families through home ownership. We have built 69 homes here in the Greater Aurora area and another 46 homes in Bolivia with our tithes to Habitat for Humanity International. As a Christian nonprofit we believe in a hand-up, not a hand-out. That is why working with churches and people of faith is ideal to make a difference in the neighborhoods and churches where we live and work. There is great interest in Habitat for Humanity’s approach to this problem that has worked over 700,000 times successfully all over the world. You may wonder, why bother, the problem is too big for you to fix. Together we may not be able to change the world but we will change someone’s world. Also because it is what God has asked us to do. Help us change our community one family at a time. Please make a contribution to Fox Valley Habitat for Humanity to transform lives and as Christians living out our faith to be the hands and feet of Christ.

It is time again for Fox Valley Habitat to build another Faith Build Home. Unfortunately, Thrivent Financial has moved on to another mission and is not going to be supporting Habitat for Humanity this year with matching funds. We presently have 5 families working on their sweat equity hours and one of those families will be picked to be the recipients for the 2023-24 Faith Build Home.

Since 2017, over 35 area churches and congregations have supported us and we have built 5 homes with your generous offerings. But now, more than ever, we need your donations. Please continue to encourage your church members to do team fundraising events for the Faith Build Home and schedule team volunteer days. Individuals are also encouraged to give generously to our housing mission. In-kind building donations are another way to support Habitat. If you work for a supplier or construction company please contact Barbara Zegiel for a list of items needed.

1 John 3:16-18—If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has not pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love in word or speech, but in truth and action.

Clidk Here for More Information on How to Participate in the Faith Build Program

Faith Build Partners from 2017-Present

The following churches and congregations have partnered with us by volunteering, praying, donating funds, hosting fundraising events, serving breakfast or lunch, securing in-kind professional labor and in-kind building supplies, donating furniture, having home showers, and helping us find deserving families to apply for our affordable Christian housing ministry:

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Humberto & Mireya

Humberto and Mireya were born and raised in Durango, Mexico. They grew up together and attended the same schools, eventually becoming sweethearts. Life was very hard in Mexico and there were no job opportunities for them. So, at the age of 21, Humberto decided to make a better life for himself and his future wife and migrated to Los Angeles, California. Three months later Mireya, traveled to join Humberto where they were married a short time later in the Catholic Church in 1992. A year after they were married, they had their first son, and their second son was born several years later.  

When Humberto arrived in California in 1990, his brothers helped him learn the ways of American life, and helped him get his first job as a dishwasher. This new life was exciting, but much different than the life he left behind in Mexico. He left their family and friends to start a new life in this land of opportunity. There were many foreign things to learn in America and in order to survive they also had to learn how to read and write English. 

Humberto and Mireya’s dream of owning a home when they got married was always a goal of theirs and they never lost sight of it. But due to the lack of higher education and job experience, they were just barely getting paid minimum wage. Humberto finally quit his first job to work for better pay and started working at the steel mill for the next 14 years. Mireya went to work at a bridal boutique to help pay the household bills. The family struggled financially over the years to make ends meet and never was able to save enough to buy their first home. Through their faith in Jesus they never gave up hope. Since the cost of living in California was getting more expensive every year, they decided to save some money to make a cross-country move to be closer to their parents and other family members living in Illinois.  

In 2006, the family packed up all their belonging and traveled 2000 miles to Aurora, Illinois. They saw this as a new opportunity for a better life and to follow their dreams of having a home. 

Humberto and Mireya are currently renting a small home in Montgomery, IL where they have been living for 14 years. Their youngest son and 3-year-old granddaughter currently live with them. Humberto is working at Promet Company as a machine operator and Mireya is a custodian for Oswego School District 308. Jesus was at work in their lives when he placed Mireya at the school, for this is when she met Ana, a co-worker, who had gone through the homeowner program at Habitat and was living in her new home. Ana talked with her a lot about how she applied for a home and urged her to apply as well. She still had doubts and reservations about the program, so Ana invited Mireya to join her for the 2021 Habitat Christmas Party for all the homeowners and friends. Ana introduced her to CEO, Jeff Barrett. During their conversation Mireya remembers these words Jeff said to her, “Miracles do exist, you will get a home if you try.”

A few months later, the family attended an orientation meeting and filled out an application. After their home visit, their application was approved for homeownership in September of 2022. 

They are excited to be serving with Habitat for Humanity doing their sweat equity hours. It aligns with the service they presently are doing at their home church of 15 years, St. Nicolas Catholic Church. They are both Christians and proclaim Jesus as their Lord. They enjoy helping and being at service to others in the community. They have done marriage counseling and Humberto has served is a Grand Knight for the Knights of Columbus. 

They urge all families to apply for the housing program. For 30 years, they have dreamed of being homeowners, and now their dream is coming true. “Miracles exist,” said Mireya.

Cristal

Cristal is a single mother of three boys. As a single mom, she is constantly struggling to make ends meet. Cristal has always wanted to become a homeowner, but due to other financial priorities, she thought her situation was preventing this from happening until she found out about the Fox Valley Habitat for Humanity Homeownership Program. Her long path to achieving her dream of owning a home officially began when her family was accepted into the program in early October of 2020 and although she still has a long journey ahead of her, she is very excited to be able to finally achieve her dream.

Cristal was born in Chicago, Illinois. Her father was a political refugee that emigrated to the United States from Cuba and her mother was born in Puerto Rico. She grew up with six siblings in a blended family. Her father was incarcerated while Cristal was still at an early age, leaving her mother to raise her family as a single mom. Their family was constantly moving from apartment to apartment and she would have to share rooms with her two younger brothers until she was 14 years old. Cristal then graduated from Hoffman Estates High School, attended Community College for interior design, then started working at a collection agency, where she met, Anthony.

In 2009, Cristal and Anthony decided to move in together and in December of that year, their first son was born. As time progressed, Cristal began to learn about Anthony’s alcohol addiction and other bad habits. While they were attending worship services at Faith World in Bolingbrook, the pastor said they should get married since they had a child. Cristal and Anthony eventually married in November of 2011, but like most women going through these types of situations, she thought she could help make their relationship better if she just worked harder at it. Unfortunately, the title of being married didn’t change much about the relationship. Things were getting so bad and out of control. After their second son was born in 2014, she prayed this would fix things with their marriage, but having another child just made matters worse, so in 2016, Cristal filed for a divorce.

They reconnected after they were divorced and in April of 2020, Cristal gave birth to their third son. This was a very difficult time for the family. Cristal was bed-bound for a few weeks after giving birth and could not take care of her three children. Due to Covid and the safety guidelines that were implemented, her mother was the only one who was able to help her during this time.

Cristal and her sons currently live in a very small single-family rental with their two dogs Siri and Gizmo. One of her goals for her family is to own a home they can grow up in. Due to her financial limitations, this goal seemed unattainable. Her top financial priorities are rent, daycare, car note, and food, but she finds herself just barely getting by. She has been in this cycle since 2009 and her credit hasn’t been the best, so she could never qualify to own a house. Then, while talking with one of her coworkers, they told her about the Habitat for Humanity homeownership program. Cristal was unsure about the program at first because she thought that the program was only for people with disabilities or people with children who have disabilities, she didn’t realize that the homeownership program was for anybody that qualifies.

She decided to check the Fox Valley Habitat for Humanity website for their next homeownership orientation meeting and signed up to attend the meeting via Zoom in March of 2020. She submitted her application in June and waited patiently for some word on her application, but due to the pandemic, no one was working in the office to process her application. But finally, in September, Debbi Albright, Director of Operations, called her back to inform her that her application had been approved. Cristal remembers that she was in shock after receiving the call because she thought that she was going to be denied. Cristal started her homeownership process in October and her family was recently chosen to be the recipients of the 2021 Faith Build Home.

As part of her willingness to partner, her family was given 350 sweat equity hours to complete. Cristal has been volunteering at the affiliates ReStore and working at the build sites of other future FVHH homeowners to earn her sweat equity hours. Cristal had never volunteered at any non-profit organizations before, but being one of the Habitat families has inspired her to continue to volunteer even after she is done with her hours. She was very nervous to start volunteering, but as she has gotten to know everyone, she now considers them to be family. She loves the interactions with the customers at the ReStore, because they all want to hear her story and find out more about the organization. She has found that some of them are not aware of what Habitat for Humanity’s mission is. Cristal enjoys being an advocate and a spokesperson for the organization and likes to help correct any misconceptions that customers might have about the organization and inform them of the good that Habitat does.

Much like her kids, Cristal is also very excited about owning her first home. Since Cristal’s first passion was interior design, she is able to live her dream of owning her home and having the power to design it exactly the way she wants to. She has many things on her wish list that she would like to see in the new home. She would like a white house with a teal door, side shutters on the windows, a large porch with a short flight of stairs to resemble a modern farmhouse style. Cristal loves painting and she wants to paint anything she can herself. They would also like a big yard for the kids and dogs to play in. She wants to fill her house with succulents, and have oak and blossom trees in the front yard.

Cristal is extremely thankful for Fox Valley Habitat for Humanity and its contributors for allowing her to become a future homeowner. She would advise anyone who thinks they might qualify to become a homeowner to just apply, because she had no idea how much Habitat for Humanity would change her life and it could help so many others. She also wants everyone who can, to donate or volunteer to the organization, because it truly changes people’s lives. After Cristal receives her house, she wants to continue to help Fox Valley Habitat for Humanity whenever she can because she is eternally grateful for everything the organization has done for her. She feels blessed to be in the position that she is in and feels very inspired when hearing that so many people are helping her to achieve her dreams.

On 12-3-23, we celebrated the home dedication for Cristal and her boys. The ceremony featured prayers, housewarming gifts and presentation of a ceremonial house key. Welcome home Cristal!