UCC’s EdenHill Communities Receives Grant to Fund Creation of Stephen Ministry

Peace Lutheran’s Dave Heise, Endowment Team chair, and Cathy Boenig, Stephen Ministry leader, present check to the Rev. Sarah Currie as Pastor Jake Fain looks on.

EdenHill Communities, a UCC-related life plan community based in New Braunfels, Texas, is always looking for new ways to partner with others in service to its residents and the wider area. That desire was evident Feb. 3, when Peace Lutheran Church in New Braunfels awarded EdenHill a $4,000 grant for a new Stephen Ministry program.

The Rev. Sarah Currie, EdenHill’s chaplain, received the check from Peace Lutheran’s Mission Endowment Team during the Sunday worship service. The Rev. Jake Fain, the church’s pastor, introduced the presentation and gave a prayer of blessing.

“Having a Stephen Ministry team at EdenHill will dramatically and significantly enhance our capability of providing compassionate, Christ-centered companionship and care for our residents who are going through difficult times,” Currie says. “Given the life circumstances of our residents, who are dealing with so many facets of the aging process, we’ll be especially interested in training and equipping our Stephen ministers to be attuned to the issues that accompany growing older.”

The gift will go to fund the training of Currie and one other person, and will facilitate the creation of a Stephen Ministry team of caregivers based at EdenHill.

Across the globe, more than 600,000 people from some 170 Christian denominations have received training as Stephen ministers since the program’s inception in 1975. For EdenHill, it’s just one more way essential partnerships can benefit the whole community.

“We are most grateful for the generous support of Peace Lutheran Church for our implementation of a Stephen Ministry team at EdenHill,” Currie says. “This is yet another indication of our vital interconnectedness as members of Christ’s body in the greater New Braunfels community.”

CHHSM member EdenHill Communities has been providing continuing care support and services in the New Braunfels, Texas, community for 113 years.