Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood Swing Hammers, Hand Out Bibles with Habitat for Humanity

As former President Jimmy Carter celebrated his 99th birthday celebration, thousands of volunteers traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina, this week to carry on one of his greatest legacies: Habitat for Humanity's Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project.  

Throughout the years, the project has worked in 14 countries to build, renovate, and repair thousands of homes.  

For 35 years, the Carters have donated one week of their time each year to building safe and affordable homes as part of the Carter Work Project. Since this is the first year they haven't been on-site, Country music superstars Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood are taking the reins. They are in Charlotte this week leading more than 3,000 volunteers in building 27 new homes. 
 
"Seeing the families and knowing from doing this before how happy they are now and how much happier they're going to be once they get into that house, I think that's what it is for me, that's the thing that I love the most," Trisha Yearwood told CBN News.
 
The Country music power couple has volunteered with Habitat for Humanity alongside the Carters for more than a decade.
 
"The truth is, great leaders, whether they're there or not, are there, the Carters are here," explained Garth Brooks. "Chip and Becky, their boy and his wife are here. They work harder than anybody else, but they stay in the background. Just there's that humility again and service, and that's it. So there's your light - just follow it."
 
This year Brooks and Yearwood get the honor of handing the new homeowners their keys and a Bible, a longstanding tradition at Habitat for Humanity.
 
"The blessing is they're getting freedom to move into their own house. With that, it's going to become trials, even though there's good celebration it becomes trials," said Brooks. "If you've got that Bible, you've always got that foundation you can start over. If you're at rock bottom, there's the Bible. If you're on top, there's the Bible."

"I think it's as much a foundation as the floor you're standing on in your house," continued Brooks.

With faith at the organization's core, volunteers begin each day with a morning devotional and along the way write scriptures and encouraging messages on homes as they build them.
 
"I hope they know that every nail that has been driven, every board that has been placed, has been done so with love," said volunteer Martin Pruitt from Covenant Presbyterian Church. 
 
While the organization has been building homes since in 1976, CEO Jonathan Reckford credits the Carters for turning the once small operation into what it is today.
 
"The world found out about Habitat in 1984 when President Carter and Mrs. Carter rode a bus up from Plains, Georgia, to New York City and spent a week sleeping in a church basement and rehabbing a tenement building on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and no one had ever seen a former president of the United States behaving this way," Reckford told CBN News. 
 
In order to qualify for a Habitat for Humanity home, homeowners must volunteer for almost 300 hours plus take classes on financial management and home maintenance.  As part of the home purchasing process, Habitat works with the buyer to ensure the mortgage allows the family to spend no more than 30% of their income on housing.
 
"That's one of the reasons that Habitat homeowners have been incredibly successful even though they are lower income than most other homeowners," explained Reckford. 
 
He says part of the reason Charlotte was selected for this year's Carter Work Project is because it's one of many cities nationwide dealing with an affordable housing crisis.
 
"Just the last five years, housing prices have doubled in Charlotte. So incomes have gone up a little bit, but that means a huge percentage of the population can't afford a rent or mortgage anymore," continued Reckford. 
 
For future homeowners like Brianna Sanford, Habitat for Humanity is a dream come true.
 
"I couldn't have done it without God, I'm telling you God is awesome," Sanford gleefully told CBN News. 
 
Sanford helped design her new home that she'll soon share with her two kids.
 
"I'll be able to live more comfortable, be able to take my kids and do more, take them out of town, different places that we never been before. It is just going to be a break," said Sanford.
 
While many first-time homeowners will receive their keys this week, Habitat for Humanity volunteers will continue working at the Charlotte Plato Price site until 39 homes in the community are completed.