After more than a year of fundraising, a local woman and married couple are ready to share their ministry with the community — a Christian home for single women with children.
What is now called Holly’s House was long just a vision in the mind of local gynecologist Kim Frazier. For years, Frazier said she watched as young single women entered her office as first-time mothers-to-be.
With their first child, Frazier said many of the women were ambitious to continue an education and create a good life for their small family. But with lack of direction and resources, their ambitions dwindled when they became pregnant with a second child, a common occurrence she found in her practice.
What was once a dream in Frazier’s mind eventually turned in to Holly’s House Inc. — a home where young adult mothers, likely with only one child, can live for free while obtaining an education.
“Our hope was to open up a Christian-based home where we could take women who are behind,” Frazier said. “When you meet them, they’re young and they’ve got that light in their eye ... they’ve got themselves into a situation, but they are trying.”
Frazier decided a Christian married couple should live in the home to assist the young women with parental guidance and child rearing.
According to its house rules, Holly’s House “will be conducted as one would run a family” with dinnertime, chores, socializing and depending on one another.
“Kind of like a family for women who don’t know what it’s like to have family,” Frazier said. “I really feel like we needed to have parents to be here 24/7 to offer guidance and support, so that when the women leave here, not only will they have an education, but they will be a better mom, a better Christian, have the tools they need to be successful.”
Amy and Ron Byrd, a couple who recently had moved to Danville from Texas, met with Frazier and soon agreed to become the houseparents.
“God chose them,” Frazier said of the Byrds, who have three adult children.
Ron Byrd said he and his wife both have reasons for wanting to be part of the ministry.
“I’ve coached baseball here for Danville, and I noticed that a lot of boys that played on the baseball teams came from single mothers. They were struggling.”
Amy Byrd said her past experience working with women and the ability to share her faith drew her to the job.
“There are so many women that need the abundant life they can find in Christ,” she said. “It doesn’t get rid of all your problem, but it gives you the opportunity to have a strength much bigger than yourself.”
While it seemed everything was falling in place for the ministry, only one vital resource was lacking: a house.
Frazier, with the help of the Byrds and the community, held fundraisers and was able to purchase a house in November at 540 Jean Drive that has been completely furnished by donations.
The Byrds already have moved to the basement of the house that has three rooms on its main floor, but according to zoning laws, would only be able to house one woman and child.
The group will go before the Danville-Boyle County Board of Adjustments on March 21 to request a conditional-use permit that would allow the house to fill each of the three bedrooms with a mother and child.
“We have to explain our house criteria, try to make our neighbors feel comfortable with who we are, what we’re doing,” Frazier said. “Let them ask questions and try to answer them.”
Frazier said if the permit is received, she will begin looking at applicants for the home. She realizes there are only three rooms to fill but emphasized her ministry is looking for a very “particular” woman — one who has not yet given up hope for a better life, has the drive to earn an education, and is willing to live by the house rules, she said.
The women will adhere to a curfew, be expected to attend regular church services, and volunteer in the community. No overnight guests will be allowed, and visitors will be approved by the Byrds.
The women will be given random drug testing, but Frazier said Holly’s House is not to be confused with a halfway house or rehabilitation facility.
“This will be a strict Christian home, and they will know that coming into it,” she said.
Frazier said the ministry will start small, but she hopes it will grow in time. And although not everyone will be a right fit for the house, she intends to find resources and help women outside of Holly’s House as well.
What is now called Holly’s House was long just a vision in the mind of local gynecologist Kim Frazier. For years, Frazier said she watched as young single women entered her office as first-time mothers-to-be.
With their first child, Frazier said many of the women were ambitious to continue an education and create a good life for their small family. But with lack of direction and resources, their ambitions dwindled when they became pregnant with a second child, a common occurrence she found in her practice.
What was once a dream in Frazier’s mind eventually turned in to Holly’s House Inc. — a home where young adult mothers, likely with only one child, can live for free while obtaining an education.
“Our hope was to open up a Christian-based home where we could take women who are behind,” Frazier said. “When you meet them, they’re young and they’ve got that light in their eye ... they’ve got themselves into a situation, but they are trying.”
Frazier decided a Christian married couple should live in the home to assist the young women with parental guidance and child rearing.
According to its house rules, Holly’s House “will be conducted as one would run a family” with dinnertime, chores, socializing and depending on one another.
“Kind of like a family for women who don’t know what it’s like to have family,” Frazier said. “I really feel like we needed to have parents to be here 24/7 to offer guidance and support, so that when the women leave here, not only will they have an education, but they will be a better mom, a better Christian, have the tools they need to be successful.”
Amy and Ron Byrd, a couple who recently had moved to Danville from Texas, met with Frazier and soon agreed to become the houseparents.
“God chose them,” Frazier said of the Byrds, who have three adult children.
Ron Byrd said he and his wife both have reasons for wanting to be part of the ministry.
“I’ve coached baseball here for Danville, and I noticed that a lot of boys that played on the baseball teams came from single mothers. They were struggling.”
Amy Byrd said her past experience working with women and the ability to share her faith drew her to the job.
“There are so many women that need the abundant life they can find in Christ,” she said. “It doesn’t get rid of all your problem, but it gives you the opportunity to have a strength much bigger than yourself.”
While it seemed everything was falling in place for the ministry, only one vital resource was lacking: a house.
Frazier, with the help of the Byrds and the community, held fundraisers and was able to purchase a house in November at 540 Jean Drive that has been completely furnished by donations.
The Byrds already have moved to the basement of the house that has three rooms on its main floor, but according to zoning laws, would only be able to house one woman and child.
The group will go before the Danville-Boyle County Board of Adjustments on March 21 to request a conditional-use permit that would allow the house to fill each of the three bedrooms with a mother and child.
“We have to explain our house criteria, try to make our neighbors feel comfortable with who we are, what we’re doing,” Frazier said. “Let them ask questions and try to answer them.”
Frazier said if the permit is received, she will begin looking at applicants for the home. She realizes there are only three rooms to fill but emphasized her ministry is looking for a very “particular” woman — one who has not yet given up hope for a better life, has the drive to earn an education, and is willing to live by the house rules, she said.
The women will adhere to a curfew, be expected to attend regular church services, and volunteer in the community. No overnight guests will be allowed, and visitors will be approved by the Byrds.
The women will be given random drug testing, but Frazier said Holly’s House is not to be confused with a halfway house or rehabilitation facility.
“This will be a strict Christian home, and they will know that coming into it,” she said.
Frazier said the ministry will start small, but she hopes it will grow in time. And although not everyone will be a right fit for the house, she intends to find resources and help women outside of Holly’s House as well.
