Wednesday night, Victory Life Church held its ribbon cutting and offered a tour to the congregation of Russell House, the first of at least four rescue homes that will eventually be located on the property.
The Russell House, named after Scott and Donna Russell of Blanket, is the first of the homes to be completed and will soon begin housing those in need.
“We had a number of volunteers come through but the Russells as couple put an exceptional amount of work into that place and showed a massive heart for the project,” said Dr. Craig Smee, pastor of Victory Life Church of Brownwood. “As a thank you, we named that house the Russell House. We’ll probably name each of the four buildings something to say thank you to the volunteers who contribute.”
A walk-through of the completed 1,800 square facility concluded Wednesday’s church service, as the former storage building now features a living room, dining area, kitchen, utility room, four bedrooms, two bathrooms and closet space. A total of eight to 12 people will be able to occupy the Russell House at one time.
As for the rescue home project itself, Smee said of the idea, “When we arrived two years ago I did an extensive review of all of our buildings and assets and believe we must use what we’ve got. We had buildings in a state of disrepair that were not being used and going nowhere. I immediately began investigating what the needs were in our community that we could use those facilities for. We found Brownwood as a whole doesn’t have much for those in need and those in emergency and those traveling into our community to do projects. Ministries are not being enabled because the affordability and availability of accommodations are very scarce. So the idea behind the houses are to facilitate those in need, those in emergencies and any other ministries coming in to help our community.”
For more information about the project or to apply for temporary housing, contact Victory Life Church of Brownwood at 325-646-3420 or stop by at 901 C.C. Woodson Road.
“We have a very brief application process, especially for those in emergency, but we’ll be getting out to other agencies like the Red Cross to let them know what we do have,” Smee said. “But they can contact the church and we’ll begin making sure they will be helped. We already run quite an extensive rescue benevolence program without the house, but we are looking to forward to seeing what the house can do for our community.”
