Covenant News

New Covenant Enabling Residence Dedicated

DULUTH, MN (September 8, 2003) - North Place/Covenant Enabling Residence of Minnesota, hosted a dedication ceremony at its new facility Sunday afternoon as Harold Spooner, executive vice president of outreach ministries for Covenant Ministries of Benevolence, was among those in attendance.

North Place is a Supported Living Situation (SLS) that includes a side-by-side duplex that can house as many as eight developmentally disabled adults. Guests at the dedication also included Northwest Conference administrator Jon Kramka, along with two representatives of the conference's Covenant Women's Ministries: Toni Schwabe (director) and Rachel Peterson (president).

The vision for North Place began two years ago, said Dana Norton, administrator of Covenant Enabling Residences in Minnesota. Project manager Jim Rich, a parishioner at nearby Lakeview Covenant Church, donated his time to run the construction project, which began in January. National Covenant Properties assisted with financing. North Place began housing residents on July 14. There are six residents in the facilities.

North Place is the second enabling ministry in the area. Our Place has been in Duluth for five years and has a similar housing arrangement. A third enabling residence is in the works with the help of Rice Creek Covenant Church in Shoreview, a suburb near the Twin Cities. The support of Covenanters for the residences has been an encouragement to Norton and others.

"I don't know of many Christian group homes in this area," said Norton. "And I don't know of many denominations where the whole church body gets behind this. For example, Covenant Women Ministries raised $120,000 for Our Place and most of the donations were for $50 or less. We've also had work service projects from Northwest Conference churches here. It's really unique - we try to get people to come alongside the families of special needs persons and the churches have done that.

Norton noted the caring response from several local Covenant churches after Matthew Rheaume, who lived at one of the Covenant enabling residences, died recently.

"He had attended Lakeview Covenant and the church was extremely supportive - it hosted the memorial service," said Norton. "The pastors at Lakeview and from Gethsemane, First, and Salem Covenant churches were supportive too. We had a memorial tree planted for him on Sunday."

For more information about North Place or other Covenant enabling residences in Minnesota, call Norton at 218-624-3097 or email her at ourplacecer@juno.com.

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