The Excitement
Is Building
On July 24， 1989， there was a mortgage-burning ceremony for
Bo and Emma Johnson s house.
But this was no ordinary mortgage-burning. This was
the mortgage on the very first home built by Koinonia s
Partnership Housing Program， the forerunner of Habitat for
Humanity.
In 1969 when Bo and Emma Johnson moved their chil-
dren-Junior， Sally， Cookie， Queenie， and Baby Sister--from
their unpainted， uninsulated shack without plumbing into a
simple， concrete block house with a modern kitchen， an indoor
bathroom， a good heating system， and a large， beautifully land-
scaped yard， the sale price was $6，000 for the thousand-square-
foot house， to be repaid at $25 a month for twenty years， with
no interest.
Every month over the next twenty years Bo and Emma
made their monthly payments until， finally， they paid that last
one--six months ahead of schedule. It was the very first house
of the Koinonia program to be paid off by its owners.
We were part of Koinonia Farm in 1969. Millard was the
director of this Christian community， located in southwest Geor-
gia near Americus. On that November day when Millard helped
carry Bo and Emma s furniture across Georgia Highway 49 to
their new house and a new life， the idea for hundreds of more
such houses for other needy families was only a distant and dim
possibility. But by that mortgage-burning day in 1989 there were
457 Habitat projects in twenty-nine nations. Over 5，000 houses
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