Allen and Janelle Goetcheus were planning to serve as hospital missionaries in Pakistan in nineteen seventy four. But while waiting for visas... the couple visited Washington's Church of the Savior and its outreach ministries. Janelle... a physician... and Allen... a United Methodist minister... were moved by what they saw. The scale of poverty and homelessness in the capital changed their plans entirely. They scrapped the overseas mission... and moved to Washington in nineteen seventy six.
Treating poor and homeless patients in the city... Janelle found many needed more sustained care than a clinic could offer. She also noticed hospitals discharged uninsured patients faster than others... leaving homeless people to recover on the street... or in shelters. Convinced these patients needed a safe place for respite care... she and Allen formed a mission group with five others from the Church of the Savior... Marja and David Hilfiker... Don and Ellen Martin... and Sister Marcella Jordan. The seven are credited with conceiving Christ House.
Janelle brought the group's concerns to the Reverend Gordon Cosby... pastor of the Church of the Savior... who connected her with a donor. That donor anonymously gave two point five million dollars... to buy and renovate a vacant building on Columbia Road Northwest... and cover the first months of operating costs. Christ House admitted its first patient on Christmas Eve... nineteen eighty five.
The Goetcheuses also helped launch several related health ministries... Crossroad Health Ministry in nineteen seventy seven... Community of Hope in nineteen seventy eight... Columbia Road Health Services in nineteen seventy nine... and a satellite clinic at S-O-M-E... So Others Might Eat....
