|
 Abraham
House, the result two years of efforts by people from more than a
dozen congregations primarily from Maplewood and South Orange became
Rachel’s home on April 26th at 3 PM.
Rachel Acquoi, who has worked more than 400 hours of sweat equity on
her new home, and her three children now live in the latest Habitat
for Humanity Newark home.
Abraham House was established two years ago by HFHN’s Faith
Relations Committee. Abraham was the person in the Old Testament who
was told by God that his descendants will be more numerous than the
“stars in the sky.” From that one Biblical leader descended the
entire Jewish, Christian and Muslim religions.
Congregations from those religious beliefs were joined by Buddhists,
Hindus and Ethical Cultural organizations who together raised the
required money to build the house and then proceeded to construct
the building. In all hundreds of representatives of the different
congregations spent thousands of hours building the three bedroom
house.
Land for the building was donated by a member of Ahavas Sholom
Jewish Congregation, the last Jewish Synagogue in Newark. The first
$33,000 for the project was donated by members of Prospect
Presbyterian Church of Maplewood.
Rachel Acquoi and her children; Sandra 16, Denise 15 and
Precious 8 enjoy the dedication of their brand new home in Newark.
They had been living in public housing a few blocks away.
Pictured in the brand new kitchen with Rachel are several people
who played major roles in the successful completion of Abraham
House.
From the left: Rev. Rick Boyer, pastor of Prospect Presbyterian
Church of Maplewood; Don Blaesser, Deputy Executive Director
HFHN; Dave Zurhide, Executive Director of HFHN; Margaret Prentice,
Chair Family Relations Committee and Barry Wolfenshon, Faith
Relations Committee member and Carpenter’s Club member.
View the various stages of
construction.
For a sample of media coverage on the Abraham
House please see the links below:
Star Ledger online - April 30, 2009
New Jersey Jewish News - July 3, 2008
New
Jersey Jewish News - August 30, 2007
More
information on groundbreaking
$62.50 Doesn't Sound
Like Much, Does It?
|
