President: ‘I call our residential program a discipleship program’

By Sheila Harris sheilaharrisads@gmail.com

His House Foundation, a family-centric non-profit in Shell Knob, is uniting the lakeside community and spreading its influence into the greater community beyond. 

The foundation itself was established 15 years ago, but its two-year, residential program for families in crisis began five years ago at its current location in the former Star Lodge Hotel, perched high on a ridge overlooking the Central Crossing Bridge on YY Highway. The faith-based foundation’s campus has since evolved into something more: a hub for community services, including the Clark Center, Diaper Bank of The Ozarks, Al-ANON family support, and a gathering spot for various Christian retreats and conferences throughout the year.

Trina Colwell, president of the His House Foundation Board of Directors, said she credits God with the expansion of His House services, the support of a growing group of community partners and the transformation she is seeing in the lives of the young families in the residential program.

“This wouldn’t be happening without Him,” she said.

Colwell said His House’s 5th anniversary milestone was accomplished one day at a time, many times through trial and error, but always trusting that God would provide. However, Colwell said as the foundation enters its sixth year, the Board is facing a time of reckoning.

“The building itself needs capital improvements, including a new roof and other costly indoor and outdoor repairs,” Colwell said. “It’s obvious to anyone who looks at the outside of the building the amount of work that needs done.”

Colwell is trusting God to provide the means for making the improvements to the building — an estimate just shy of $350,000 — as well as to pay off the debt-load still attached to the building.

“With donations from the community members, we’ve been able to pay off part of our debt, and for that, I thank God,” Colwell said. “But, we have a little over $500,000 remaining.”

Colwell said the Board’s goal is to reduce debt and make repairs, so they can focus more on the ministry without worrying about money.

To bring awareness to the need, His House Foundation will kick off a fundraiser with something new for the organization: a charity golf tournament.

The event, planned for Friday, May 23, at the Cassville Golf Club, is being organized by His House Board Member Padyn Beyer and her friend, Rachael Freeman, who serves as Cassville Community Foundation coordinator. Check in will begin at 7:30 a.m., with a shotgun start scheduled for 8:30 a.m., Beyer said.

As of April 29, there were a few openings still available for four-person teams.

“The price to play is $60 per player, $240 per team, with a limit of 18 teams,” Beyer said.

Entry fees include carts, play and lunch.

If anyone would like to contribute to the tournament without necessarily playing golf, Beyer said different sponsorship levels are available: The $500 Platinum includes a 4-person team and lunch, as well as a “Hole, cart and banner” sponsorship; the $350 Gold includes a “Hole, cart and banner” sponsorship; The $250 Silver includes a four-person team and lunch sponsorship; and the $200 Bronze includes a “Hole and cart” sponsorship.

“We’ll have some fun contests, too, including “Closest to The Pin,” and “Longest Drive,” plus a 50/50 raffle and buy-ins for ‘Mulligans,’ that give a golfer a second chance when they make an oopsie,” Beyer said.

All proceeds from the tournament will go to His House, Beyer said.

While Colwell does have plans to speak about His House at the golf tournament, she said she’s not the golfer that she once was.

To spend any time at all with her is to learn that Colwell’s passion is for the young families with children – single parents or couples — who live on campus as part of His House’s residential program. Many of those families left lives of addiction before coming to His House, with the consequences of past wrong turns still with them.

“I call our residential program a discipleship program,” Colwell said. “We walk alongside these families; really get to know them and love on them; and help them grow strong in Christ.”

In fact, the program’s name, F.U.E.L. Academy, stands for “Families, United, Educated, Loved.”

Colwell admits that the program, with its multiple rules, including holding down a job, attendance at daily 6 a.m. Bible studies, twice-weekly church services and classes in financial planning and parenting skills, plus helping out with household and outdoor chores — is not for everyone. Some choose to leave without staying the course, she said.

Regardless, the results have been transformational in the lives of those who have chosen to stick with the program, Colwell said.

“I see the change in people’s faces and in their actions,” she said. “They’ve been given new lives: lives with a purpose, different than the ones they left behind.”

Success stories are numerous, including that of Nancy Walton, who, after completing the residential program, recently moved into her own house with her two children.

Walton, who moved to Shell Knob from Springfield after completing a drug rehab program several years ago and praying for God to take away her cravings, said she found a sense of community in His House that she’d never experienced before.

That theme — “the tie that binds” — is common among the residents at His House.

“A lot of the residents don’t want to move away from the area after they graduate,” Colwell said. “They want to stay close, so they can maintain the sense of community.”

As for the broader community beyond the His House campus, Colwell said people are seeing that God is changing young parents’ lives, and, as a result, the lives of their children.

“Now, I have people calling me, asking me if I have anyone at His House who would like a job,” Colwell said.

For Colwell, that question speaks to the work God is doing through His House.

“We’re investing in families, here,” she said.

Beyer said His House offers families who have been caught up in the cycle of addiction a place to pause and regroup.

“That’s what they need,” she said.

Former addict, Alicia Parsons, said she’d tried to kick the drug habit many times throughout her life, but, until she came to His House, it just didn’t stick.

“A relationship with Jesus is what I had been missing,” she said.

Parsons and her husband, Jake, have been clean now for almost four years, and will soon be moving into their own home.

Beyer and Freeman are looking forward to the His House Charity Gold Tournament on May 23.

“Cassville has always been a community that shows up and supports one another,” Freeman said. “We’re fortunate to have such a beautiful [golf] course here in Cassville and an incredible group of local golfers who are always willing to step up and play for a good cause.”

The His House Charity Golf Tournament is another example of that spirit of willingness, Freeman said.

“Every team, every sponsor and every participant helps make a difference. We’re excited to see the community come together once again,” she said.

Trina Colwell said, beyond the golf tournament, there are multiple ways to make a difference to the His House ministry.

Aside from general financial donations, people can opt to cover the cost, materials or labors for specific repairs, Colwell said.

For an itemized list of needed repairs, or information about ways to donate or volunteer to His House Foundation, people may visit HisHouseFound.org, or call 417-524-0026.

For more information about the His House Charity Golf Tournament, people may call Beyer at 417-342-6881.