{"id":71129,"date":"2026-06-17T18:09:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T22:09:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=71129"},"modified":"2026-06-17T18:09:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T22:09:48","slug":"former-faith-lutheran-church-sold-for-1-4-million-and-will-become-a-center-for-teen-mothers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/06\/17\/former-faith-lutheran-church-sold-for-1-4-million-and-will-become-a-center-for-teen-mothers\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Faith Lutheran Church Sold for $1.4 Million and Will Become a Center for Teen Mothers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That is a huge win for local community support services. It is an incredible adaptive reuse of that space, especially considering how much of an impact it&#8217;s going to have on local families.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"888d9d\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #888d9d;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"757\" height=\"465\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Screenshot-2026-06-17T175658.178.webp?resize=757%2C465&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-71130 not-transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Screenshot-2026-06-17T175658.178.webp?w=757&amp;ssl=1 757w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Screenshot-2026-06-17T175658.178.webp?resize=300%2C184&amp;ssl=1 300w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The transaction closed with local philanthropists Arturo and Susan Echarte purchasing the former <strong>Faith Lutheran Church<\/strong> property at 211 Easton Drive for <strong>$1.485 million<\/strong>. Instead of flattening it for new residential lots or letting it sit empty, they are leasing the entire nearly one-acre campus to the faith-based nonprofit <strong>Hope House Florida<\/strong> for a symbolic <strong>$1 a month<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The move is a major milestone for the area for a few notable reasons:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Expanding the Footprint:<\/strong> Hope House Florida, which serves young single and teen mothers, is relocating its main operations from Bartow to this larger facility. The 17,278-square-foot building will allow them to significantly scale up their housing resources, mental health counseling, and self-sufficiency programs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Architectural Preservation:<\/strong> For the local history and architecture buffs, the 1984 church campus was designed by <strong>Nils M. Schweizer<\/strong>, a well-known prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of Frank Lloyd Wright. The sale ensures the distinctive property will be preserved and maintained rather than redeveloped.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>A Win-Win Transition:<\/strong> Faith Lutheran&#8217;s congregation had seen its numbers average around 40 weekly attendees in recent years. The near-unanimous vote by the congregation to sell ensures the building continues to serve a deeply community-minded, mission-driven purpose.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is a beautiful example of local philanthropy stepping in to solve two problems at once\u2014giving an architectural piece of Lakeland a stable future while providing a massive safety net for young moms who need a village to get on their feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tomasa Villaronga, a licensed mental health counselor who was named executive director of Hope House Florida in April. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Founded&nbsp;in 2019 as His Hope House Corporation, the nonprofit made headlines last year following the arrest of former Executive Director Tara Johnson.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On October 29, 2025, Johnson was&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/10\/29\/tara-johnson-executive-director-of-hope-house-in-bartow-has-been-charged-with-sexual-cyber-harassment\/\">charged<\/a>&nbsp;with distributing digital sexually explicit images of a man without his permission. Investigators said Johnson and her friend, Kristina Taylor, sent explicit images of Taylor\u2019s former boyfriend to his current girlfriend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to a Hope House spokesperson, Johnson resigned the same day she was charged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-embed wp-block-embed-embed\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"yEKwK5fcjI\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/10\/29\/tara-johnson-executive-director-of-hope-house-in-bartow-has-been-charged-with-sexual-cyber-harassment\/\">Tara Johnson, Executive Director of Hope House in Bartow, has been charged with sexual cyber harassment<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201cTara Johnson, Executive Director of Hope House in Bartow, has been charged with sexual cyber harassment\u201d \u2014 \" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/10\/29\/tara-johnson-executive-director-of-hope-house-in-bartow-has-been-charged-with-sexual-cyber-harassment\/embed\/#?secret=K7VtWJkAAQ#?secret=yEKwK5fcjI\" data-secret=\"yEKwK5fcjI\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-embed wp-block-embed-embed\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"jAaXvZtI7X\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/11\/17\/hope-house-executive-director-charged-with-distribution-of-sexually-explicit-images-see-affidavit\/\">Hope House executive director charged with distribution of sexually explicit images: See AFFIDAVIT<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201cHope House executive director charged with distribution of sexually explicit images: See AFFIDAVIT\u201d \u2014 \" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/11\/17\/hope-house-executive-director-charged-with-distribution-of-sexually-explicit-images-see-affidavit\/embed\/#?secret=zl0xSACQX1#?secret=jAaXvZtI7X\" data-secret=\"jAaXvZtI7X\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-embed wp-block-embed-embed\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"Wxuk2z3Fr8\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/04\/14\/hope-house-the-house-of-horrors-bartows-little-secret-revealed\/\">\u201cHope House the House of Horrors\u201d, Bartow\u2019s little secret revealed \u2026.<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201c\u201cHope House the House of Horrors\u201d, Bartow\u2019s little secret revealed \u2026.\u201d \u2014 \" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/04\/14\/hope-house-the-house-of-horrors-bartows-little-secret-revealed\/embed\/#?secret=WVMlefMJuK#?secret=Wxuk2z3Fr8\" data-secret=\"Wxuk2z3Fr8\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-embed wp-block-embed-embed\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"9uZCCEUZ52\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/04\/15\/hope-house-the-house-of-horrors-bartows-little-secret-revealed-part-2\/\">\u201cHope House the House of Horrors\u201d, Bartow\u2019s little secret revealed \u2026. Part 2<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201c\u201cHope House the House of Horrors\u201d, Bartow\u2019s little secret revealed \u2026. Part 2\u201d \u2014 \" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/04\/15\/hope-house-the-house-of-horrors-bartows-little-secret-revealed-part-2\/embed\/#?secret=soHlEPANqr#?secret=9uZCCEUZ52\" data-secret=\"9uZCCEUZ52\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>That is a huge win for local community support services. It is an incredible adaptive reuse of that space, especially considering how much of an impact it&#8217;s going to have&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDZcL1NjcmVlbnNob3QtMjAyNi0wNi0xN1QxNzU2NTguMTc4LndlYnA_Zml0PTc1NyUyQzQ2NSZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IkZvcm1lciBGYWl0aCBMdXRoZXJhbiBDaHVyY2ggU29sZCBmb3IgJDEuNCBNaWxsaW9uIGFuZCBXaWxsIEJlY29tZSBhIENlbnRlciBmb3IgVGVlbiBNb3RoZXJzIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.0_s62D9rLKMDQHbhWPu6v6BHHNHYdZaaRPsR0iQacycMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA2XC9TY3JlZW5zaG90LTIwMjYtMDYtMTdUMTc1NjU4LjE3OC53ZWJwIiwidHh0IjoiRm9ybWVyIEZhaXRoIEx1dGhlcmFuIENodXJjaCBTb2xkIGZvciAkMS40IE1pbGxpb24gYW5kIFdpbGwgQmVjb21lIGEgQ2VudGVyIGZvciBUZWVuIE1vdGhlcnMiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.AERywFLJWonq6xvMBEqAaM6AHNAyqxzmc6sLJhf9gBgMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71129"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71131,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71129\/revisions\/71131"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}