For some people, their life’s calling may take some trial and error, or perhaps come to them only later in life after years of searching. For Jeff Hassel, it seems like his life’s calling was apparent to him pretty early on: helping people.

It sounds vague, and that’s by design, considering that Hassel’s work cannot be encapsulated into one thing. His altruism has consisted of building and repairing houses, churches, preaching and building congregations (thanks to attending seminary school at Duke University), as well as helping people find medical assistance and helping not just houses, but the people who live inside them.

After starting his new role as Habitat for Humanity York County’s executive director in August, Hassel said he is grateful to have landed in Kennebunk, working at the organization he has always wanted to. He said Maine has welcomed him with open arms and inviting communities, and he thanks the board of directors for the appointment that allows him to do this work while remaining close with his family in Connecticut.

“I’ve wanted to work with Habitat for a long time,” Hassel said, “and for whatever reason it just never aligned.” When Habitat for Humanity York County reached out to him in July after he had thrown his application in the ring for the position, Hassel was thrilled. “I wanted to stay in New England. This is home base for me. The stars aligned.”

Hassel’s passion for his work is undeniable, and it shows just in the way he discusses it. He still remembers conversations from decades ago that connected him to the people he helped, like Mr. Collins, a disabled former coal miner who Hassel helped in replacing his porch.

“The relationship became personal,” said Hassel, discussing the first in-depth conversation he had with the man over a glass of iced tea. “I learned about his family. I learned about some of his hopes and dreams. Some of them realized, some of them not, some of them taken away by the accident that he had in the mine. And I just thought, ‘This is, this is meaningful work.’”

That was sometime back in the ’90s, when Hassel first started working for the Appalachia Service Project, a non-governmental organization dedicated to assisting people and families in need with home repairs to ensure they have proper shelter. The volunteer work they provide is located within central Appalachia, including North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia.

Hassel said that his work with the project so early on helped him to realize just how captivated he was with this line of work.

“That felt good,” he recalled. “I felt like I was doing something that had a purpose to it, that was beyond me.”

Even in his pastoral work, Hassel said his goal was never to be a “big steeple preacher,” but rather that he wanted to remain focused on the more personal connections with his congregation. He recounts that while being a preacher was good, important work to him, what he really wanted to do was get back to missionary work.

“I wanted to connect church folks with meaningful opportunities to serve, and so that’s what I did.”

When Hassel signed up to be a missionary with the United Methodist Church, he was then sent to Lithuania as a pastor. He said what really drove him at the time was its work rebuilding Methodist churches that were destroyed over the 45 years of Soviet occupation in the country.

After about six years in Lithuania, Hassel decided to move back to the U.S., but specifically as mission director for a church in North Carolina with ties to Guatemala. Thanks to the time he spent in Guatemala, he was able to polish up on his Spanish and do what he loved: build. A few years down the line, Hassel sold his belongings and moved to Guatemala full time to immerse himself in the language and the culture, right before finding a job as the executive director for the Organization for the Development of the Indigenous Maya.

The Organization for the Development of the Indigenous Maya is a nonprofit organization in Guatemala that provides health care to the local population, regardless of economic status or ability. Hassel was able to connect the organization with Duke University’s Global Health Institute, and together the clinic and the researchers were able to find the sources for much of the patients’ ailments, such as the use of open stoves in the home that led to lung and eye issues due to smoke. Eventually, Hassel and his team were able to start what they called “high-impact home initiatives” to help the patients of the clinic based on the research findings.

“We provided water filters,” said Hassel, “we put in new roofs, we put in smokeless stoves with chimneys, and we put down cement floors so that we addressed the areas the research said were hurting our people.”

When he returned to the states once again, this time Hassel worked for Lazarus House Ministries, another nonprofit organization (this time in Lawrence, Massachusetts) whose services include providing “community, food, shelter, clothing, and advocacy services” to people and families who are low income, homeless or food insecure.

After three years, he moved back down South to work for the Asheville, North Carolina, humane society. Hassel refers to this period as a bit of an outlier, considering his work historically focused on the betterment of the lives of his fellow man, not necessarily man’s best friend, but this doesn’t make the job any less important to his personal history.

In fact, a four-legged reminder of this job followed him up to where he is now. Alongside his 80-pound dog Wubzie, Hassel found his way up to Maine to finally be involved with an organization whose mission he has been spreading since his first volunteer build.

“It’s not just some generic home building project at Habitat, we get to know the families we’re working with … it’s the relationships that are built during the process of building a home that I think that matter a lot to me.”

Hassel said one of his big goals with the organization is to strengthen and build relationships with others who help make Habitat for Humanity’s goals possible, whether that be other nonprofit organizations, government agencies, or just community members.

While the cost of living increases nationwide, housing becomes a stressful topic for many. Despite the growing uncertainty, Hassel remains hopeful that regardless, Habitat for Humanity York County will continue to assist in more communities as time goes on.

“(Habitat for Humanity is) all over the county, and we want to continue to expand our reach to the point that people can gain a sense of stability for their families and have their own home to live in.”