Challenge House 1

Happy New Year 2013!

Our family of five moved into Challenge House 1 on November 3rd after a couple of months of painting, changing flooring, and various home maintenance projects. We are excited to provide not only a cozy home for our family, but for all our neighbors and friends that will come to visit!

Since moving, we have been asked many questions about Challenge House ministry, so we would like to take a moment to introduce ourselves and answer some questions about the ministry at Challenge House 1.

We, Nate and Ellen, have been married for 13 years and have three children: Ethan, Isaiah, and Annalee. Our family has lived in Hopkinsville, for 7 years after relocating with Ellen's job in military healthcare. A recent contract change has allowed Ellen to work from home full-time and Nathan is able to work at home in the ministry and homeschooling the kids. We are members of Hillcrest Baptist Church, where Nate serves as a deacon and Nate & Ellen teach 1st grade Sunday School and work in the Youth group.

Since moving to Central Avenue we have been blessed to meet many neighbors, all of whom have been very kind and welcoming! We also have began to meet many children and teens in the neighborhood as they have started to drop by for snacks and to chat. We love that we can share our home with our neighbors and friends, not just for the scheduled programs, such as tutoring and 4H, but also just to visit and fellowship.

We have received many questions about Challenge House ministry...we will try to answer a few:

• Is Challenge House 1 a shelter?
• No. Our family lives in Challenge House 1 and we cannot offer shelter services, however, if you are in need of a place to stay we will work to co-ordinate with community resources such as The Salvation Army or Sanctuary House.

• Do we need to sign up to participate in Challenge House?
• Some programs will require you to sign up to participate, for example the tutoring program is ran through Holiday Elementary and the 4H program to be starting soon will require membership forms to be completed.
• You are welcome to stop by for a visit and to share a snack with us. We would love to get to know our neighbors and hope to have some fellowship times in addition to any scheduled programs offered.

• How can we help with Challenge House ministry?
• Volunteer - we need volunteers for weekly programs and also there are times where we may have a single scheduled events in which we can use help. If you have a particular interest or skill you would like to share...please let us know.
• Supplies - in any ministry there are supplies needed to run the ministry, basic items would include toilet paper, paper towels, cups, napkins to snacks, drinks, tea bags, etc.
• Financial support - this can be given to Challenge House ministries as a whole to support the 5 Challenge Houses already established or allocated to expenses to support a specific Challenge House.
• Prayers and Encouragement - We covet the prayers of the Challenge House supporters as we seek to build relationships with our neighbors and share Christ and His love with them.

We are happy you have stopped by to check out our blog and hope that if you have any questions you will feel free to ask us. You can contact us by email at challengehouse1@gmail.com.