Pictured (l-r): Baptist Home Advancement Director Ron Mackey; Leonard and Clara Erickson’s daughter, Marilyn Skipper; Baptist Home-Ashland Founding Administrator Steve Long, Baptist Foundation of Mid-Missouri Representative Barney Sword, Baptist Home Advancement Officer Derek Tamm; and, also representing The Baptist Foundation of Mid-Missouri, Bill Lloyd. Not pictured from the Mid-Missouri Foundation are Jack Blaylock and Jim Marberry.
COLUMBIA, Mo. — The Baptist Home Corporate Office announced on Friday (May 10) a gift of $150,000 from The Baptist Foundation of Mid-Missouri. The donation will be used for the construction of a new chapel on The Baptist Home-Ashland campus, slated to open this year.
The gift resulted from the sale of a home formerly owned by Leonard and Clara Erickson of Columbia. After their deaths, the home was donated to The Baptist Foundation of Mid-Missouri with the goal of it being used for furloughed missionaries and pastors. Marilyn Skipper, whose parents owned the home, said her dad had long dreamed of a Baptist Home presence in central Missouri. She will be one of the first residents on the new Baptist Home campus at Ashland.
The Duke-Nelson chapel is named in memory of two prominent Missouri Baptist leaders, Nelson Duke and Tom Nelson, and their wives, Wilma and Flora. The Baptist Foundation of Mid-Missouri gift will be used for the entryway and foyer, which will be named in honor of Skipper’s parents. The is one part of a larger community center for social gatherings, activities and worship.
This gift brings The Baptist Home closer to reaching $800,000 of the $900,000 project by July 10, 2019, the amount needed to be awarded a $100,000 Challenge grant from the J.E. & L.E. Mabee Foundation of Oklahoma. As of today, $730,000 has been secured for this project.
The central Missouri property was purchased debt-free from funds provided by The Baptist Home Foundation in 2014. Phase One of the 73-acre property just north of Ashland and west of Hwy 63 will initially be developed into a cottage-style retirement community with independent (active) living, assisted living units and a chapel and community center. More information can be found at thebaptisthome.org/ashland.
