Project Lifehouse - Beacons of Hope
When I first moved to Columbus, GA in 2013, I noticed so many incredible things about our beautiful city. I saw all the changes and improvements that were happening and the reclaiming of the uptown area. As we began doing our Take the City outreaches, I also started noticing some areas in our city that were still in desperate need of love.
Dreaming
As we began reaching out and sharing the gospel in various neighborhoods, I started to have a burden for many areas of our city. I even started meeting with city officials to ask them more about these various areas of need and how we could do more to help improve them. That’s when I began to dream, what would it look like if we could renovate abandoned homes in these areas in our city with the goal of moving mission-minded Christians into them, to serve as beacons of light and hope? What an idea that would be!
Action
This dream, I figured, was 5-10 years down the road. The Lord had other plans. He gave us our very first home in Bradley Circle in Spring of 2017. That first home donation ended up leading to another 27 homes that were all donated to our ministry before the year of 2017 was over. We didn’t ask for any of these houses but all of them were brought to us. It was as if the Lord was wanting to be sure we knew that this was HIS idea and not ours.
The Lord continued to move, and we began to renovate homes and move families into Young Ave, North Highland and the East Highland community. Most recently, due to the generous donations of time, labor, and finances, we have finally finished our 5th home in the Southside on Garden Drive. This area, by far, is the neighborhood with the greatest amount of need. Just a week ago, as I was getting out of my car, I found a gun shell casing by my foot. There are frequent gang related shootings and murders just within a few blocks of this home. This area needs SO much transformation!
New Missionary – Garden Drive
We are so excited to announce that we have finally completed this project in Garden Drive and that the Lord has sent a man from Atlanta named Trevor McGill to serve in this Project Lifehouse home. He arrived at the end of 2021 and has already made several connections and led a team of men and women from Take the City to minister and pray for people in his neighborhood. He also just shared a few days ago that since he began interceding for his neighborhood and the surrounding neighborhoods, the number of shootings at night has decreased dramatically. There is NOTHING that our God cannot do!
Partner with us in covering Trevor McGill in prayer. If you would enjoy serving alongside him on outreach to his neighborhood, feel free to email him at mcgill.trevorj@gmail.com.
Thank you for all your support!
-Andrew Chalmers, Founder of Take the City
Donna
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My first encounter with Take the City was going to Wilson Apartments in Columbus GA. We were met by a man from that neighborhood who prayed with us before we began the outreach. We set up an area for the kids to play and others went door to door witnessing and praying for people. It truly was a humbling experience. Another time I got to pray at an abortion clinic which was another humbling experience. The worship services the night before are always dynamic and spirit led. However I will conclude with the best part for me was being an eight week participant of Take the City boot camp. All of the leaders were simply AWESOME and I learned so much during those eight weeks. I thank God for all these wonderful opportunities!