Matthew 29:39b “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
ECC began its outreach at Miller Elementary School and Bauer Community Center in 2007. Over the years, we worked with various families that the school recommended to us as possibly needing support. As we developed relationships with the families it became clear that housing was a HUGE issue in their lives. They were paying high rent, the homes were in need of repair, landlords were unwilling to work with them, they were being evicted, and several faced the possibility of becoming homeless.
In 2018 through a partnership with Habitat For Humanity, we were able to help two families with housing. We walked alongside them so they became stable in their housing situation and maintained more consistent employment. We worked with the school to get the support their children needed. While this has been a growing experience for all of us, the families have been able to stay together and continue to make progress.
Takeisha was a part of our pilot program and continues to live in one of the houses today. Here is a short glimpse at how our housing ministry has affected her life as well as the lives of her children.
I have had the privilege of walking alongside of this family for seven years and am proud of Takeisha. Previously, she had gone from one job to another. She’s worked at Wabash for 4.5 years now and continues to make progress towards becoming independent.
In May of 2021, ECC voted to purchase the two houses used in our pilot housing ministry from Habitat For Humanity and to create a Community Development Corporation. The paperwork to become a CDC was finalized in October of 2021. Covenant Community Development Corporation is now in the process of taking over the mortgage from ECC and is working to become independent from, but still an integral part of ECC’s outreach ministry. We will also take possession of the lot ECC has on South 3rd Street where we hope to build another home. Being separate gives us better opportunities to receive grants and gain wider influence in the community. At the same time, to be connected to the church, more than half of the board is comprised of people from ECC.
We covet your prayers for us as a nonprofit as we pursue this vision that God has put before us of providing quality affordable housing to families as we walk alongside them to encourage them and to help create empowering environments giving them the opportunity to become stable and to live independently.
Prayer is an important part of your support. Other practical ways that you can become involved include helping with general maintenance and landscaping. If you are interested in helping in some way, you can email me at rooms@ecclife.net. Another way that you can support CCDC is through your monetary gifts. If you would like to give to support CCDC’s efforts in our community, click the button below.
We are thankful for ECC’s belief in us as a CDC and we look forward to how God uses us to help families in the Lafayette area.