It’s taken about two years, but the pieces of a puzzle are about to fall into place. The result will be Shiloh Home of Hope, a home for unwed mothers in Emporia.
Family Life Services is in the process of purchasing the former home of Galen and Beth Miller, who recently moved out-of-state. Dr. Galen Miller, an orthodontist, and his wife built the brick-and-stone building to house his practice in the basement and his family upstairs. Their son currently lives in the house.
When they built the house, the Millers thought they later might turn the structure into a ministry of some type, according to Cindy Rhudy, director of FLS. That goal should happen within the next several months, although it will be FLS running the ministry.
“When you help a family, you help the community. It has that rippling water effect,” she said.
Rhudy and the FLS board — with support from the Millers, some churches and other members of the community — plan to move the organization into Miller’s old office space and use the upstairs for unwed mothers.
Rhudy said that plans are to provide a home atmosphere and more. Life-skills lessons, classrooms, counseling and perhaps a small cottage industry are all part of the plan for the house.
“A lot of the young people who come here just don’t have the environment to make life changes,” Rhudy said of clients who come to FLS current offices in the basement of the Prudential Real Estate building.
FLS wants to help the clients not only be qualified for employment, but to know how to choose clothing for interviews and careers, how to present themselves, how to be effective parents and other coping mechanisms they may not have already learned. FLS also works to raise the self-image of its clients.
“A lot of them don’t know what love is themselves, let alone how to show it to their children,” Rhudy said. “We don’t just want to teach them to change diapers. We really want them to break out of the destructive patterns and build new life skills.”
The Miller home will help them do that.
The orthodontic office zoning will allow FLS to have offices, along with more space for its children’s boutique, diapers and other supplies and clothing for the young mothers. A total of six bedrooms and a dormitory-type room that can accommodate six on the top floor will provide ample living space. The house seems to have been built with FLS in mind, Rhudy said.
The diverse pieces of the puzzle have come together in a surprising way, she said. The Millers’ desire to turn the building into a ministry was only the first piece of the puzzle.
Rhudy and her husband, Mike, had talked about operating a bed-and-breakfast business when they retired. They were discussing that as they walked around their property one evening.
“My husband said, ‘You’re going to think I’m crazy, but what about a home for pregnant girls?’” Rhudy said. “I said, ‘You’re right. I think you’re crazy.’”
Cindy Rhudy wasn’t yet working at FLS. A short time later, she began her new job and saw the needs of the unwed mothers she was helping. But she didn’t want to run a home for unwed mothers.
The third piece of the puzzle came during a break-out session in a church conference, when a friend confessed that she felt drawn to working with unwed mothers and wanted to become involved in helping them in a home atmosphere.
“I just trembled because I was so overwhelmed,” Rhudy said.
With someone to run the house day-to-day — Carol Alderman and her husband, Lee — the FLS board voted to pursue establishing a home in Emporia.
“So that’s kind of how the ball got rolling,” she said. “It’s just been a matter of timing, how things have come together.”
The Millers, who will sell the house and office building to FLS, have given FLS a substantial price discount on the home and will wait until the funds are raised to vacate it.
Since December, Family Life Services has raised $45,000 toward the sale price and are working on raising the remaining $65,000 needed to take possession.
A Walk for Life event is being planned for this spring and other fundraising activities are planned. Rhudy and the board will talk with Emporia ministers and present programs about the project to other groups to try to garner support. Rhudy is confident it will happen.
“This whole thing has just been done in little miracles,” Rhudy said. “God’s shown himself faithful, so I’m not concerned.”