Duncan family gives thanks for their dream home

With the sound of the guitar and the Celtic-inspired song, you could almost picture Gene and Sandra Duncan in the gospel coffee house 23 years ago.

Of course, the Duncans never dreamed, back then, that they would marry and have more than a house full of kids. Or that the Rowan County branch of Habitat for Humanity would provide a home for their family.

Gene planned to stay single and serve the Lord. Sandra hoped to marry, but she wasn’t so sure about being a mother. “I didn’t even want kids,” she said. “I hated to baby-sit.”

God had other plans for the couple, Sandra explained Sunday as the Duncan family gathered with others to praise God and mark the start of Habitat’s 12th year of building houses to help struggling families realize the dream of owning a home.

After Jonathan was born, the Duncans knew that they had been blessed and the blessings continued to come: Christin, Rachel, Sarah, David, Eli and Emma. Seven total, ranging now from age 2 to 14.

“I consider (Habitat) a ministry,” said Pete Teague, president of the local chapter, to those meeting at First United Methodist Church of Salisbury. “This is a way for God’s people to demonstrate God’s love.”

Rowan Habitat built six houses last year, and the Duncans’ five-bedroom home is the largest house built in the county to date. The Duncans, like all Habitat families, helped with the building and make payments on the new home, which Habitat then uses to build more.

That’s the way the program works. Families partner with a sponsoring group and then work to build a home. It’s not a charity program, explained Teague. He said the program gives hard-working individuals an opportunity to earn a home.

The Duncans were renting a three-bedroom, one-bath country farmhouse in Mount Ulla when their local pastor, the Rev. Ken Koontz of New Covenant Christian Fellowship, suggested they apply for a Habitat house. Although Sandra wasn’t sure the family would qualify, she felt sure that God would take care of them. They loved where they were living, but they simply didn’t have enough room.

“We prayed about it,” said Gene, and when the family was accepted and partnered with First Presbyterian Church of Salisbury, he considered it a real miracle.

The house was completed in August, and the Duncans moved in and were able to take in Sandra’s father, Robert Carlton, who is in Hospice care. The four girls share a bedroom so the grandfather can have a room, but the kids don’t mind bunking up.

They are accustomed to living in close quarters, and the house with the green tin roof has a deck and a wheelchair ramp.

The Forest Creek house is a hub of activity, with Sandra home schooling and caring for her father. She said she wouldn’t be able to do it all if Gene wasn’t such a good father and if the kids didn’t pitch in.

“I had to learn not to be such a perfectionist,” she said.

Guest speaker, Janet Ward Black, who worked with Habitat when she was a lawyer and assistant district attorney in Salisbury, said, “It is important that we do for each other.” She commended families like the Duncans for pitching in to make dreams come true and encouraged all members of the community to help out.

“It’s about love,” Black said. “That love can come in checks, in sandwiches, in dry wall and in prayer.”

Cyndi Allison is a freelance writer and teaches at Catawba College. Contact the newsroom at 704-797-4245 or news@salisburypost.com .