The House That Love Built: The Story of Linda & Millard Fuller, Founders of Habitat for Humanity and the Fuller Center for Housing
THE HOUSE THAT LOVE BUILT: THE STORY OF MILLARD & LINDA FULLER, FOUNDERS OF HABITAT FOR HUMANITY AND THE FULLER CENTER FOR HOUSING by Bettie B. Youngs (Hampton Roads, 100 b/w photographs, 424 pages, hardcover, $25.95, 978-1-57174-546-0): details how a twenty-nine-year-old millionaire created the national faith-based housing initiative and saving his marriage in the process. --Foreword OnlineAt the heart ofThe House That Love Builtis the dramatic story of Fuller s fall from grace from the organization he had grown and nurtured. The author, Bettie Youngs, describes how Fuller s world ground to a stop when, in a power struggle, he was fired by Habitat's board of directors in early 2005. But Fuller did not let that keep him from the work he has been called to do. After the shock of being fired from a company they created, the Fullers had a two-day pity party before moving forward in the calling God gave them providing affordable housing for the poor.We've built in a hundred countries and still have nearly that many to go, Millard said. The housing ministry is what we believe God has called us to do.The Fullers were eager to get back to their kingdom work, so they have created The Fuller Center for Housing which is rapidly duplicating the success of Habitat. Through blitz builds and ongoing projects in numerous states and in such countries as Nepal, Nigeria and Romania, Millard Fuller continues to work toward his goal to eliminate substandard housing worldwide. --The 700 Club, cbn.comChristian self-help author Youngs's (Living the Ten Commandments in New Times: A Book for Teens) insightful biography, more of Millard than of Millard and Linda, includes a detailed history of Habitat for Humanity International. Millard became an entrepreneur in his youth, excelling in various sales endeavors; he and Linda were millionaires before they were 30. Youngs relates the spiritual and marital crises that followed and how the Fullers gave away their wealth and shifted their goals to loving God by serving humanity. Eventually, this calling resulted in the formation of the world's largest nonprofit home-building organization with the goal to end the blight of low-income housing and homelessness worldwide. Youngs devotes nearly one-third of the book to the conflicts between the Fullers and Habitat's board and to the firing of Millard in 2005. Spending so much time on these issues may seem biased, but this book is not a mere polemic; it is an informed look at two philanthropists and their revolutionary work. The parts about Millard's faith will resonate with Christian readers. Recommended for spiritual living or philanthropy sections in most public libraries. [The author is a friend of the Fullers. Ed.] Erica L. Foley, Flint P.L., MI --Library Journal