Inspiring and insightful, Our Better Angels: Seven Simple Virtues That Will Change Your Life and the World celebrates the shared principles that unite and enable us to overcome life’s challenges together. “When the waters rise, so do our better angels.”—President Jimmy Carter Jonathan Reckford, the CEO of Habitat for Humanity, has seen time and again the powerful benefits that arise when people from all walks of life work together to help one another. In this uplifting book, he shares true stories of people involved with Habitat as volunteers and future homeowners who embody seven timeless virtues—kindness, community, empowerment, joy, respect, generosity, and service—and shows how we can all practice these to improve the quality of our own lives as well as those around us. A Vietnam veteran finds peace where he was once engaged in war. An impoverished single mother offers her family’s time and energy to enrich their neighbors’ lives. A Zambian family of nine living in a makeshift tent makes room to shelter even more. A teenager grieving for his mother honors her love and memory by ensuring other people have a place to call home. A former president of the United States leads by example with a determined work ethic that motivates everyone around him to be the best version of themselves. These stories, and many others, illustrate how virtues become values, how cooperation becomes connection, and how even the smallest act of compassion can encourage actions that transform the world around us. Here are tales that will make readers laugh and cry and embrace with passion the calling of our better angels to change the way we take care of ourselves, our families, our communities, and the world.

A complete, step-by-step guide to building a house, from the world's leading authority on community homebuilding.

If you're looking for ways to give back to your community, then this book, the first to profile thirteen projects designed and built by architects and Habitat for Humanity, will help. Detailed plans, sections, and photographs show you how these projects came about, the strategies used by each team to approach the design and construction process, and the obstacles they overcame to realize a successful outcome. The lessons and insights, presented here will aid you, whether you're an architect, architecture student, Habitat affiliate leader, or an affordable housing advocate. Located all across the United States, these projects represent the full spectrum of Habitat for Humanity affiliates, from large urban affiliates to small rural programs. These cases illustrate a broad range of innovative approaches to energy performance, alternative construction strategies, and responses to site context. And each house demonstrates that design quality need not fall victim to the rigorous imperatives of cost, delivery, and financing.

Until he learns more of what they are doing, a young boy is upset that his special Saturdays with his parents change when they volunteer for Habitat for Humanity.

Family, friendship, and the spirit of giving are at the heart of this inspiring picture book. Opening in Depression-era New York, The Carpenter's Gift tells the story of eight-year-old Henry and his out-of-work father selling Christmas trees in Manhattan. They give one of their leftover trees to construction workers building Rockefeller Center. That tree becomes the first Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, the finest Henry has seen when adorned with homemade decorations. Henry wishes on the tree for a nice, warm house to replace his family's drafty, one-room shack. Through the kindness of new friends and old neighbors, Henry's wish is granted, and he plants a pinecone to commemorate the event. As an old man, Henry repays the gift by donating to Rockefeller Center the enormous tree that has grown from that pinecone. After bringing joy to thousands as a beautiful Christmas tree, its wood will be used to build a home for a family in need. Written by children's nonfiction author David Rubel, in collaboration with Habitat for Humanity, The Carpenter's Gift features charming, full-color illustrations by Jim LaMarche.

* The remarkable story of Habitat for Humanity as told by its new leader

"David Rowe spent many years with Habitat International as President, volunteer, and staff. Here is an intimate look at one of the world's great charities, a front row seat for the good and bad, from bitterness to forgiveness, from America to the world, from homeownerss to Jimmy Carter and Millard Fuller. it is a celebration of humble beginnings, great expectations and God's grace"--Page4 of cover.