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Pictured are two of 12 cabins at Hand-Up Village behind Abounding Grace Ministries at 7495 U.S. Route 127, Celina. Hand-Up Village was founded in 2015 by the Rev. Rick Brosher.
CELINA - For the last decade, The Rev. Rick Brosher has served as the executive director of the nonprofit, faith-based community known as Hand-Up Village, providing temporary shelter to nearly 350 people as they endeavored to get their lives back on track.
Now, the time has come for Hand-Up Village's 10-member board to begin looking for Brosher's eventual successor, someone possessing not only a strong foundational faith and a special calling, but an abiding capacity for love and a clear vision for the future.
Pictured are two of 12 cabins at Hand-Up Village behind Abounding Grace Ministries at 7495 U.S. Route 127, Celina. Hand-Up Village was founded in 2015 by the Rev. Rick Brosher.
Brosher and his wife, Trish, founded Hand-Up Village in 2015 on 5 acres of land behind Abounding Grace Ministries at 7495 U.S. Route 127, Celina. The site is home to 12 cabins and has capacity for 20 to 25 people.
Hand-Up Village is not a homeless drop-in center that some may associate with crime. Rather, it is a temporary community designed to help people get back on their feet, board members have said.
Individuals accepted into the village must get a job and put at least half of their earnings into a savings account to ultimately pay off outstanding utility bills and/or any fines, buy a reliable vehicle and build up a reserve to secure housing.
Guests also must attend church services.
"We don't get any kind of government money whatsoever, and so folks that stay out there are required to attend church. They can attend any church of their choice," Brosher said. "Most do attend Abounding Grace simply because it's close, and a lot of times people don't have transportation so they can't get somewhere else."
It usually takes guests up to six months to meet Hand-Up Village's goals before setting out on their own. "I've said this to so many people, and I've been in ministry all of my adult life: Hand-Up Village, I feel like, is the best thing that we've ever been involved with. But it's also the most challenging thing that I've ever been involved in," Brosher said. "I feel like it's real ministry dealing directly with hurting people. But it's so challenging."
The Broshers have done a remarkable job in carrying out the mission and want to continue in their roles for as long as they're healthy, according to board members. But Rick Brosher, 69, also feels like the couple's time overseeing the village may be drawing to an end.
"We know whoever is going to come after us is going to be much different than we are. That's not a bad thing," he said. "So we're just believing God's going to send the right people."
A sign on one of the cabins at Hand-Up Village reads "God has told his people, 'Here is a place to rest; let the weary rest here. This is a place of quiet rest.'"
Whoever that person or persons may be will find a difficult but deeply-rewarding assignment that is the definition of ministry.
"When Rick does decide to go, he will be a very, very difficult position to replace because he's so multitalented. He handles the day-to-day functions. He wears so many hats out there," said board member Bruce Swonger. "He's going to be a hard one to replace."
Fellow board member and former Mercer County Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffery Ingraham concurred with Swonger's take, calling Rick and Trish Brosher the parents of Hand-Up Village.
"They have birthed this gift to the community to provide for people on a temporary basis, and beyond that, give them direction in their lives so that they don't get back in the same cycle again," Ingraham said. "As Rick said, not everybody is successful, but for those who are it's helping not only those people but their children and their children's children."
In so many instances, cycles of dysfunction are generational, Ingraham noted. Those cycles, however, can be broken.
"Beyond just temporary housing, it helps to get them off that cycle for those who are successful and create a new life not only for them, but for their families and their future progeny," Ingraham said.
The Rev. Rick Brosher is coming to terms with his impending retirement as executive director of Hand-Up Village, though he has not set an official dates. Board members are laying the groundwork for this eventual successor.
Among the core requirements of the job is a dedication to the Gospels, empathy and vision.
"The vision is a gift that God provides certain people, and there's other people that do great work, but they couldn't tell you what's going to happen in the next six months, let alone in the next ten years," Ingraham said. "People like Rick, they're successful because they are able to organize and relate to people. Life's all about relationships. Those relationships Rick has fostered with these people who live out there is the life of Hand-Up Village."
The role also requires perspicacity and vigilance to ensure guests are living up to their end of the bargain.
"There are people out there that just want a handout and want a place to lay their head, but they don't really want to work and they don't want to do anything to better themselves," Brosher said. "We're just not interested in that. We don't do it. I think that's one reason why the community, the county has supported us so well is because we have those kind of standards. We're not just giving somebody a place to live. We're trying to help folks get on their feet."
Potential candidates may think the position sounds like an ideal way to share their love of Christ with a community. But until they actually inhabit the role, they may not know what they're committing themselves to, Swonger and Ingraham said, floating the idea of an internship.
"They don't understand until they go do it what that actually requires, and it takes the love of a parent, like what Rick and Trish provided to these people," Ingraham said. "And that love is what has sustained the positivity that helps people get back on a life of productivity and (self-reliance).
"It's not evident that we have a lot of people like Rick and Trish that have given their lives to God and show it in this way."
In fact, securing a successor is not going to happen by happenstance. God's going to have to send someone, Ingraham insisted.
"He will," Swonger reassured Ingraham.
Pictured are several of the cabins at Hand-Up Village behind Abounding Grace Ministries at 7495 U.S. Route 127, Celina. Hand-Up Village was founded in 2015 by the Rev. Rick Brosher.
Hand-Up Village is nearly always at or near full-capacity.
"Occasionally if someone's just outside the county (but) … still community people, we'll take them, but this is a Mercer County thing. We're just trying to meet the need here," Brosher said. "As far as legitimate need, I feel like with the housing that we have, we're meeting most of the legitimate folks wanting a hand-up."
Though Hand-Up Village has hosted people of all ages, it's seen an uptick in senior guests.
"We currently have a 69-year-old and a 64-year-old guy staying out here and another guy that's close to 60," he pointed out. "(Some seniors) had surgery or something and couldn't maintain their job so they couldn't pay their rent. … The majority of the older folks that we've had have come from a background of a strong work ethic and know what it takes to be successful, and so you don't have to teach them that stuff. When they get well they get back on their feet."
Board members have been pleased with Hand-Up Village's results over the years.
"I think the community support that we've seen, donations, has all probably exceeded our expectations - with the exception of secondary housing market," Swonger said.
It's very difficult for people preparing to leave Hand-Up Village to lock-in housing, forcing some to relocate to Greenville, Portland, Indiana, or elsewhere on the periphery of Mercer County.
"Unfortunately, I feel like everything that's being developed is for something other than common people that make it from paycheck to paycheck," Brosher added. "And I just don't see anything developed in our community that is for the most common people that are just trying to survive with a family."
Those interested in learning more about the executive director position can contact Hand-up Village officials at handupvillage.org or its Facebook page.
