Clarence Jordan Award

By Christina Zlotnick

The Greater Nashua affiliate has been honored with the Clarence Jordan Award. The award was presented by Laura MacNeil, an Affiliate Support Manager of Habitat for Humanity’s Northeast region, to Ron Dyer, a representative of the Greater Nashua affiliate at the 2004 “Take a Hike for Humanity” recognition ceremonies. The award honors the 2003 “Take a Hike for Humanity” – a regional fundraiser for local Habitat for Humanity affiliates. It also recognizes the collective efforts to organize and produce the event since its inception in 1996. To date, the annual fundraiser has generated more than $250,000.

The Clarence Jordan Award is one of a number of honors created five years ago when Habitat for Humanity International launched the Pioneers in Excellence Awards, an annual recognition program for local affiliates. The first honorees were named in March 2000 for their 1999 achievements. The awards serve as a way to honor and encourage U.S. affiliate productivity, innovation, and creativity in the accomplishment of Habitat for Humanity’s mission.

According to Laura, the award was a direct result of the level of partnership among affiliates and Ron’s ability to organize and produce the hike-a-thon within such a network.”Affiliates see it as a collaborative effort and work together to make it succeed. By working together, they raised more money than individually.” Ron is “tireless in his efforts to make this happen and,” according to Laura, “his leadership is what made it happen. His vision and enthusiasm made it so successful.”

Fellow Affiliate Support Manager Peter Dalton of the Northeast region says the hike-a-thon won the Clarence Jordan Award because, “It is such a great example of what affiliates can do when they collaborate with each other to raise awareness and funding support. It simply would not have grown as it has without Ron Dyer. I greatly admire Ron’s commitment to Habitat, his focus on success, and his attention to detail.”

In addition, Peter points out Ron’s future plans. “I also know that he is setting the stage for the event to grow beyond a dependency on him so that it will continue to expand its potential each year. It is rare for someone to have both the ability to plan a complex event and the vision to understand what needs to change to sustain it. I’m glad he continues to share his talents with Habitat.”

As for the award’s namesake, Clarence Jordan was a Baptist minister in rural southwest Georgia. He was also a widely-admired Bible scholar, writer and farmer who believed in racial reconciliation. In 1942, he founded an interracial community, Koinonia Farm, near Americus, Georgia. Koinonia, the Greek word for “community”, was a commune-style Christian group organized under the principles of racial equality and non-violence. Being a good steward of the land and sharing material items was also important to the members.

Clarence and his wife Florence had come to the area to form a community where blacks and whites could live and work together. The community eventually grew as the Jordans and their neighbors farmed and ate meals together, formed friendships, attended Bible studies and summer youth camps.

However, as one might imagine, the idea of racial equality was not embraced with open arms outside the confines of Koinonia. During the 1950’s and 1960’s, the community withstood fierce resistance in the form of bullets, firebombs, Ku Klux Klan rallies, death threats and property damage. Tactics such as economic boycotts and excommunication from churches were also employed.

By 1968, only two families were living on the farm, including the Jordans. It was at that point that Clarence received a note from former farm neighbor and millionaire businessman Millard Fuller. Millard and his wife Linda first stepped foot on Koinonia Farm several years earlier after the threat of a failed marriage caused the couple to recommit their lives to God and to donate their wealth. Millard had been looking to reconnect with Clarence. Millard’s enthusiasm seemed to reenergize Clarence.

It was under the renewed spirit between the two men that Koinonia Farm changed its name to Koinonia Partners. The newly-structured community created “partnership housing” which built affordable homes for poor families. Those families would then purchase the houses with no-interest mortgages. The mortgage payments would, in turn, fund the construction of more homes.

Unfortunately, Clarence died in 1969, just before the first house was finished. Despite the distressing loss of their friend and partner, the Fullers continued to lead the housing effort at Koinonia for several more years before they moved to Africa to start a similar effort.

In 1976, the Fullers founded Habitat for Humanity International, modeled after the work at Koinonia. Along with the “sweat equity” of the homeowners, Habitat volunteers have since built nearly 200,000 houses in 100 countries around the world.

More recently, two sister communities in Georgia recently have grown out of Koinonia: Jubilee Partners which hosts and helps hundreds of refugees from around the world; and the New Hope House which ministers to prison inmates and their families.