GAINESVILLE – A lighthouse in Gainesville is relocating.
May 11, 2021, marks five years since the passing of Good News at Noon founder Gene Beckstein. Mr. B. has gone to be with the Lord whom he loved, but the outreach he and his wife started in an effort to minister to neighbors-in-need lives on.
Beckstein was unabashed about his past and how God changed his life. His testimony included a stay at the country’s oldest continuously operating rescue mission, Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago, a shelter known as The Old Lighthouse. Beckstein would later try to emulate that outreach after his retirement as an educator and school administrator in Gainesville.
That effort started as an open-door offer for free lunch in Beckstein’s own kitchen in 1987; it then moved into the Melrose Community Center the following year; then later settled into its current location at 979 Davis Street around 1990.
Now, after three-plus decades and countless repairs and patchwork renovations at that location, a plan to build on a vacant 2.85-acre lot about a quarter-mile away at the intersection of Dorsey Street and Pearl Nix Parkway has been announced.
“Our current facilities are run-down, not adequate at all for what we are trying to do every day,” Good News at Noon Director Ken Gossage said. That need has been long known and obvious, but awaiting God’s timing has always been a key element in the ministry’s decisions.
“In May of 2019…Koch Foods…right adjacent to us…approached us about…us selling our land,” Gossage said. Koch Foods is a poultry processing company headquartered in Park Ridge, Illinois, with 13,000 employees working in locations across six states.
“We eventually were able to come to an agreement on this property…they made us a very generous offer,” Gossage added. “But we wanted to be able to stay in this area, we feel like this is the neighborhood where the greatest need is, and God, at the same time we were negotiating with Koch, found us a great piece of property just right around the corner.”
“At that point we just felt like God was leading us to do something more than we’ve ever been able to do. So we’re going to be able to…increase services, increase capacity in our men’s shelter, and the plan is to also add a dormitory for single women, which is a big need here in Gainesville.”
Design plans for the new facility are in the final phase of approval, Gossage said. “It’s going to be a very nice looking building. We are at one of the Gateway Corridors in the city so we have certain restrictions we need to meet there as far as the aesthetics of the building.”
Gossage said the building would be one level and have about 11,000-square feet of heated space. “It’s pretty much going to allow us to double our current footprint in all areas.”
Gossage says the outreach of Good News at Noon is not solely focused on the homeless and those struggling with finances, but also on people and families from all levels of the socio-economic community. He says the need many people feel to give back to their community, to do something positive, is very real and Good News presents an opportunity for that to happen.
The Becksteins made it a point to include some very wealthy and influential people in the everyday processes that happen at the shelter, from washing dishes to sorting through donated used-clothing items, and that tradition continues today.
“That’s one of the cool parts about Good News at Noon…the importance of volunteers.”
He was quick to add that the COVID-19 pandemic greatly reduced the number of volunteers visiting the campus, but invited anyone who would like to offer their services to contact him once they feel the time is right, and safe, for them to do so. (770) 503-1366
“Actually, we didn’t have one COVID case through the whole pandemic, which is kind of remarkable and another blessing from God,” Gossage said with a smile.
“God may speak to you while you are here…we’ve seen that over and over again, where a volunteer comes and serves a meal and the next thing you know is they are leading a Bible study.”
Gossage says a sizable portion of the funding needed for the relocation is in place, but now invites the community-at-large to contribute to the effort as they feel led by God. The ministry has set up a post office box to accept financial assistance:
Good News at Noon
P.O. Box 1577
Gainesville, Ga. 30503
Donations may also be made by way of the ministry’s website. Gossage is hopeful that the move will be completed and ministry will begin at the new site in the first half of 2022.
