Stepping into Generosity 2023 Grantees

Child Evangelism

Child Evangelism Fellowship© is a Bible-centered organization whose purpose is to evangelize boys and girls with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, disciple them in the Word of God and establish them in a Bible-believing church for Christian growth and living. Our main area of teaching is Good News Clubs. We serve children in preschool, elementary school, and middle school. We also have a large special events area along with working with student summer missionaries. We have been serving the Chattanooga area for over 5O years. In the last year, we have served 9,898 children in our area. Of that number, only 266 preschool children were reached due to lack of volunteers, as many of the volunteers in this area are aging or have passed away.

Ministry Update: Because of your generosity, we were able to film 18 preschool videos! These will be distributed to daycares and preschools throughout our region and the entire state of Tennessee and beyond reaching literally thousands of children with the gospel message.  Our team of staff and volunteers had a blast working on this project. Here’s a sample video from our “Good News Clubhouse:”

Thank you, Stepping into Generosity Women, for making this dream a reality!

Patti Harris

Executive Director

Homes and Havens

Homes & Havens creates healing spaces for individuals in recovery. Since 2016, our small team of compassionate creatives spends our days designing and furnishing homes and spaces that promote healing, rest, and joy for women/children and organizations serving those in recovery. Using a unique trauma-informed approach to design, our team designs spaces that awaken weary hearts to the reality of healing. In 2022, Homes & Havens launched a new program called The Listening House, which takes our understanding of healing spaces to another level. We now design beautiful soul care retreats for exhausted nonprofit leaders and community servants in need of a little recovery time. Each retreat is thoughtfully curated to help bring rest, healing, and courage to keep going, as we re-engage with Jesus and His invitation to “abide in Me.”

Ministry Update: Thank you for helping us make our retreat happen. Because of this generous grant, we were able to take a group of women who are leading ministries in the Chattanooga area on a creative retreat. The retreat content focused on gentle ways to pray and maintain their connection to god even despite the heavy demands of ministry. We enjoyed many good meals and space to be quiet and reflect – and sleep! We led everyone through a creative journaling practice.

Feedback from our participants:

“This retreat allowed me to rest and breathe, to listen for Jesus amidst other listeners, and to delight in the many, many ways the grace of the Lord was being lavished upon me.”

“I found a lot of what I was seeking – grounding, accountability and accessibility to rest and the Spirit, and a beginning journey of inward peace more intentionally. I truly felt like the weekend began to undo a lot of what the last couple years had formed in my life, and I don’t think I’ve had such a real tangible experience like that before.”

“It was such a joyful oasis of peace. One particular exercise really felt like a breakthrough in my prayer life and I am still grateful.”

“This retreat was Positive and deep. I had been longing for a time to solely set aside other responsibilities and worries to just sit, be still and listen and I was able to do that.”

From the Homes and Havens team, Thank you for supporting us and allowing spaces like this to be created for those touched by trauma in our community. Thank you! Thank you!

Original Grant Request Video

Hope Unlimited

Hope Unlimited Ministry began in 1996 with the mission of reaching single parent families with the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. We pray that they will receive salvation (John 3:16) and surrender their lives to Jesus Christ (Galatians 2:20). Many single parents find themselves on a life path that is the result of negative choices they have made. Once they find their way to Hope Unlimited, they are seeking to change their behavior and become productive adults in society. By sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them and encouraging each family to live a godly lifestyle, our ministry helps our clients change personally, as well as influence the next generation in their care. In our work, we find that most single mothers struggle to move forward because of shame and pain in their life. Through Christ-centered counseling coupled with life-skills training and setting goals and objectives, they are able to unfold their pain within the “God-shaped vacuum” of love and support that Hope Unlimited provides.

Ministry Update: Blessings! Truly, God is faithful beyond measure! Rejoicing! Thank each of you for your wonderful kindness in lovingly blessing God’ s ministry with the provision of a very much needed van. This wonderful van provides transportation for precious single-parent families. Thank you so very much for your grant of $20,600.86.

Also, the coordinator of Hope Unlimited Ministries in Uganda, Africa and single-parent families in Uganda have been praying over the years for a van for Hope Unlimited Ministries in the USA. Look at God! Look at Grace! 

Thank you for supporting God’s work and journeying with me as I seek to reach precious single-parent families and a hurting, lost, and dying world with the message of Hope which is in Jesus Christ our Lord (John 3:16). Your loving kindness encourages me in the work of God’s Kingdom and providing Christ-centered ministry services as the Lord enables me to serve in God’s kingdom. Each of you are truly a precious blessing!

Sister Rita Carr

Lamentations 3:21-23

Original Grant Request Video

Restore 6:34

Restore 6:34 began its programing in 2021 as a discipleship home offering Christ-centered shelter and life-skill training for formerly incarcerated women in the Chattanooga/North Georgia area. Our mission is to provide restoration to women coming out of the prison system by helping them apply the Word of God, as they begin to conquer their addictions and transform their lives.

Ministry Update: 

Original Grant Request Video

WillowBend Farms

Ministry Update: The ladies we serve who participate in the vocational aspect of our program at WillowBend Farms have elevated the program as we strategically focused on enhancing the quality of production, presence, and accessibility of products with the funding from Stepping into Generosity. 

The most inspiring update I can give is this – one of the ladies who has been with us through all our programming, and was our first residential client, joined us as a staff member and is helping lead the vocational program.  This is due in part to the funding from your generous gift.  Survivors leading survivors has been the heartbeat behind what we do, and now, we see it taking place.  Our hope is to hire two more in the next couple of months.

In addition, we have used the grant from Stepping into Generosity to purchase two new computers, an inkjet printer and production equipment to meet the volume of products we are now making.  This allows us now to explore offering our products wholesale to boutiques, which is very exciting! 

The WillowBend curated store presence has been elevated as well, with new external and door signage along with curb appeal and interior redesign of signage and ease of store use.  Our products are now available online and professional labels are being utilized to enhance every product the ladies make! 

We have a few more projects to utilize the remainder of this grant. We appreciate the confidence the women of Stepping into Generosity have shown those at WillowBend Farms.  Our women have contributed with ideas and creativity. They find value and inspiration knowing other women support them.  Thank you so much!

Sarah McKinnis

CEO & Co-Founder

Original Grant Request Video