Central Texas Hospitality House dedicated

Sixteen years after Baptist associational leaders and restorative justice ministry volunteers in the Gatesville area envisioned a place where they could offer overnight lodging to visiting families of inmates, the Central Texas Hospitality House became a reality.

Cutting the ribbon at the dedication of the Central Texas Hospitality House are (left to right) Perry Garrett, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Gatesville; John Firth, Coryell County judge; Tim Hunter, director of chaplains for Region 6, Texas Department of Criminal Justice; Michael Gohlke, president of the Gatesville Chamber of Commerce; Bill Lewis, president of the Central Texas Hospitality House board; and David Byrom, Gatesville mayor. (PHOTO/ Trae Kendrick)The nondenominational nonprofit ministry to prisoners’ families held its ribbon-cutting ceremony and formal dedication Sept. 14.

The facility is prepared to receive visitors from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays, and it will accept overnight weekend guests at the 10-bedroom house in about six weeks, after the ministry hires a director.

“Nearly everything was given to us. God just outdid himself,” said Mary Alice Wise, who has served more than four decades as a prison ministry volunteer and worked to help launch the Central Texas Hospitality House. Her husband, Charlie, serves as the ministry’s development director. The Wises are longtime members of Trinity Baptist Church in Gatesville.

For seven years, volunteers staffed a small house on four acres that served as a welcome center for Saturday visitors to the six prisons in Gatesville, as well as four others in Marlin, Burnet and San Saba.

Local ministry leaders hoped to build a larger facility that could house overnight guests on the land where the welcome center was located, but it proved impractical. However, in recent months, a Gatesville congregation provided land at an even better location with easy access to all the prisons in the city, near the intersection of two major state highways.

Central Texas Hospitality House is located at 708 Texas 36 in Gatesville.“They don’t even want to be named. They don’t want any credit, because they said that’s God’s land,” Mary Alice Wise said.

Two families donated much of the furniture for the common living areas and the director’s apartment in the hospitality house, Wise said. Several churches have sponsored bedrooms, providing funds to furnish and decorate them, and more sponsors are needed, she added.

“Texas Baptists helped us along the way,” she said. “The Baptist General Convention of Texas has been a great supporter.”

More than 11,000 offenders are incarcerated in the 10 prisons within the Central Texas Hospitality House service area, and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice reports family and friends of the prisoners make about 100,000 visits a year.