Right: Courtesy of Reagan Rule, Reagan Rule Photography


Far Right: Reverend Lisa Lefkow


Lisa Lefkow can teach us about helping others and about asking for help, too. She began her career as a Methodist minister,


serving in several churches throughout Florida, all of which were involved with Habitat for Humanity – a nonprofit, Christian organization dedicated to eliminating substandard housing and homelessness worldwide. Dependent upon volunteer labor and donations of


money and materials, Habitat purchases land and foreclosed homes, and then builds or rehabilitates houses. Qualifying homeowners are required to invest 500 hours of “sweat equity” building their homes and to make a $1,000 down payment. They repay what it cost to build the house with modest mortgage payments. In turn, those payments are used to pur- chase land and materials for more homes. Until 1999, Lefkow’s involvement with Habitat was as a volunteer at the job sites. “I was swinging a hammer,


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putting down linoleum tile floor, hanging siding, and painting,” she says. But after a trip to Haiti, she felt compelled to do more for struggling families. This led to her full-time work at Habitat for Humanity of Collier County. As executive vice president for development, she is in charge of fundraising, and her passion and commitment for this work is infectious. “Whatever way you become engaged with Habitat,


it gets its hooks in you,” Lefkow says. “At the job site, you work alongside the families who are going to soon be able to purchase that home, and you hear their stories and recognize that aside from the fact that I got very lucky and was blessed to be born in the family that I was born into, their hopes and dreams are identical to mine. They want something better for their children. They’re looking for safety and security, and for peace, just like I am. You only have to do that one or two times before it’s absolutely compelling and you have to go back. You have to have more.”


shining lights | BTG


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