Hope House holds Open House

Hope House holds Open House

Ministry shows off new facility to the public

news@theeveningtimes.com

Bigger and better than ever, Hope House hosted its grand opening this past Saturday.

The ministry relocated across Highway 77 and Afco Road, and is now occupying offices and warehouse space in the big blue building on the northwest corner. The all-day affair featured tours and finger foods along with a big frogshaped cake.

The frog carries significance for Hope House as an acronym for “Fully Relying on God.” All the ministries under their banner are run by volunteers. There has never been any paid staff.

All funds donated to the cause go straight into the expenses to run the building and into the services for the community.

Hope House operates women’s shelters. One is a safe house, maintained at a secret location in Crittenden County, for battered and abused women. The other is a “step-down” duplex in Sunset. Most women in these houses were referred by the courts, county jail or churches for a new start in life. Residents agree to a minimum time in the program, church and Bible study attendance and in return get life skills training, a way to go through community college, or shown how to find a job and launch a career.

While waiting for employment many of the ladies staff the new warehouse.

Used furniture for those in fills a third of the big new warehouse bay. A variety of women’s clothing fills a showroom at the front of the building displayed boutique style on commercial clothing racks. The tour also included a look at the food storage and distribution set up in the new building.

Separate rooms for canned goods, non-perishable and frozen food keep things organized. A bank of refrigerators lines the walls around pallets of food in the biggest room in the front office area. The tour through the warehouse showed off a big donation by Family Dollar Distribution to the charity. Thousands of canned goods, bottles of soda and laundry detergent and gallon water bottles filled a corner of the warehouse.

Feeding the hungry became a priority for the women’s ministry after the founder and director of Hope House, Mary Gibbs, visited an elderly woman with empty cupboards.

God used that visit to get the ministry into feeding the hungry.

Hope House began collecting food through Scouting for Food, and a collection from Avondale students.

Now grocers, schools, churches and individuals contribute toward stocking the pantry. Hope House distributes food to qualified county residents through the USDA and was named the 2014 agency of the year for the Mid-South Food Bank.

Hope House Founder and Director Mary Gibbs talked about the humble beginnings of the ministry, marked some milestones for growth and assessed current needs.

“We are so pleased to now have a place that we can call home,” said Director Mary Gibbs.” We started working out of a home in 2003. We’ve gone form helping less than 100 people the first year to over 16,000 last year.”

The ministry relied on the generosity of Taylor Machine Works for years before moving to their new home across the street this month. Gibbs told the story about the new building.

“God opened the door so we could buy the buildings

By John Rech