“Millard would be proud”
of David Snell’s housing ministry stewardship

AMERICUS, Georgia — Millard Fuller not only launched the world’s affordable housing movement with his wife Linda back in the 1970s, but he also revolutionized the concept of philanthropy with the hand-up approach to charity with which the Fullers founded Habitat for Humanity in 1976 and then The Fuller Center for Housing in 2005.

A passionate Christian, Millard Fuller captivated millions of people with his boundless enthusiasm and unbridled determination delivered with an unapologetic Southern drawl from his tall, lanky frame. When he unexpectedly died from an aortic aneurysm on Feb. 3, 2009, the loss was felt across the United States and around the world.

But nowhere was shaken to its core quite like rural Sumter County, Georgia, where Millard and Linda met radical theologian Clarence Jordan at historic Koinonia Farm and where they would learn the concepts of uplifting people by partnering with them to build homes and stronger foundations for families and future generations.

Fuller was laid to rest in a simple wooden box in a still-unmarked grave on the farm on one of the coldest days — figuratively and literally that the community had ever endured. Even native Coloradoan David Snell, who had worked alongside Fuller in the 1990s at Habitat and since The Fuller Center’s founding in 2005, was freezing. Fuller had been more than just a colleague in a worthy endeavor — he was a friend.

Some wondered if it would be fitting for The Fuller Center for Housing to call it quits. For People Helping People Network founder Jeff Cardwell, that was not an option. He was a Fuller Center board member at the time (as he is again today), and The Fuller Center was The People Helping People Network’s primary housing partner in its HOPE Equation. 

Cardwell also considered Fuller to be a mentor and friend, and he knew that the last thing Fuller would have wanted was for the ministry to which he had dedicated so much of his life to cease to exist. He wrote about the difficult time in his recently released book “The HOPE Equation”:

David Snell was Millard’s right-hand man at The Fuller Center, and they had worked together since the early 1990s when David organized a couple of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Projects for Habitat for Humanity. They again worked together from the first days of The Fuller Center in 2005. We unanimously chose David to be the new president of The Fuller Center.

Millard would be proud of how David has guided the ministry with a steady hand while staying true to the principles upon which The Fuller Center was founded, principles shaped decades earlier at Georgia’s historic Koinonia Farm with the inspiration of Clarence Jordan. They are simple, grass-roots, Christian principles, and, most importantly, they work. The PHP-FCH partnership is natural and permanent.

“That was a terrible blow to have Millard gone,” Snell said. “I often wonder, given his personality and his drive, where we would be today if he were still alive. I know we’d be different, but I’m proud of where we are. We’ve managed to maintain it and grow and are in great shape. I think he’d be pleased.

“It was a shame. It was untimely. But we’ve survived.”

The Fuller Center has done much more than survive in the nearly 15 years that Snell has been at the helm of the affordable housing ministry, with more than 8,000 families helped into simple, decent housing — including more than 1,000 new homes in El Salvador in partnership with The People Helping Network.

It’s all the more impressive considering that Snell came into the affordable housing ministry by accident more than 30 years ago after a successful career in the insurance industry. It was not Snell’s interest in housing issues that first got him involved but his fluency in Spanish.

“I got into housing by accident,” Snell recalls. “I’d sort of retired from corporate life and was living in the mountains in Colorado. A friend of mine that I had worked with in California stopped by. He was heading up the Carter Work Project in Tijuana and San Diego. They were having trouble communicating back and forth across the border, and I speak Spanish. He asked if we could come down, so we did. We moved to Mexico, lived in Tijuana and helped them put the project together.

“We thought it was a lark — a little six-month adventure,” he added. “Yet, here we are.”

Snell honed his Spanish skills during what he labels his “student of life” days, during which he lived in Mexico for a while.

“That’s the way you learn a language — go and be immersed in it,” Snell said. “I had a great time down in Mexico. It was different then, too.”

His Spanish skills will be quite appreciated in a couple of weeks as he joins People Helping People Network supporters once again on PHP’s annual Vision Trip to El Salvador. The Fuller Center also works in such Spanish-speaking countries as Nicaragua, Peru and Bolivia, as well as the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.

“I use it more than you’d think,” he said of the language. “We have some great projects in Latin America, so I’m able to keep up with them and help get things done that would be more difficult otherwise. It makes it easier, too, when you’re visiting just being able to be a little closer to the lives of the people.”

Cardwell in particular appreciates Snell’s fluency in the language.

“That is particularly helpful for me because despite all of my travels in El Salvador, my language learning skills have proven to be woefully inadequate,” he readily admits.

From the 1990s to today, Snell has seen many changes in the affordable housing ministry, not the least of which is that the “affordable” part gets more and more difficult to facilitate.

“Costs have certainly changed,” he said. “We were building houses for $25,000 to $30,000 in the early days, which was a lot of money then. But the costs now are disproportionate to incomes. The biggest factor impacting building new homes — particularly in the United States — is cost. Costs have risen overseas, too, but not as much.”

Another difference is that the faces of the volunteers are looking a little older as the years go by.

“The whole notion of volunteerism seems to be shifting a little bit,” he said. “Of course, older folks are more likely to be retired and have the time. But I think they also have a stronger notion of volunteering than younger folks coming up do. We keep striving on our end to do a better job of engaging youth in our work because we are going to have to pass the torch at some point.”

Snell has accepted each new challenge as The Fuller Center’s ministry has evolved through the years and has no interest in backing down from leading the work.

“Part of it is that I just get bored too quickly,” he said. “A four-day weekend drives me nuts. But I like what I’m doing, and I can still contribute. So I figure, why not keep doing it? I don’t have any reason not to. And the alternative to me is unattractive. I like this.

“It’s compelling stuff,” he added. “I’m very attracted to the notion of charity that it embodies where we’re not giving stuff away — we’re helping people to help themselves and to lift themselves up. I think it’s very elegant. And it’s a very tangible ministry. We’re building houses — a very durable form of ministry.”

Snell also finds the synergy between The Fuller Center and The People Helping People Network to be compelling and something that he wants to see grow and flourish well into the future.

“The relationship with People Helping People is unique, but it also demonstrates the power of collaboration,” he said. “The things that we do and the things that People Helping People does fit together so nicely. It really elevates people. It’s not something we can do every place, but we’re blessed to be able to do it in El Salvador. It’s just perfect.”

Fuller Center Vice President of Communications Chris Johnson will be joining Snell, Cardwell and the others on this year’s Vision Trip. He has known both men since joining The Fuller Center in 2011 following more than two decades in journalism. In addition to telling The Fuller Center story, he also assists The People Helping People Network with its communication efforts. He is in a unique position to see how Snell and Cardwell and the organizations they lead have worked together through the years.

“David and Jeff personify the way these two organizations work hand-in-hand,” Johnson said. “Their skills — particularly Jeff’s ability to marshal resources and David’s pragmatic leadership — really complement each other and make them a formidable pair of do-gooders who get things accomplished. Just as important as their complementary skills, though, is their shared motivation as they are both inspired by faith and the biblical mandate to put that faith into action.”

You can learn more about The Fuller Center for Housing at their website, fullercenter.org.