Lake Stevens church realizes its vision at last

LAKE STEVENS — The House Worship Center has finally found a home where its vision can come to life.

That vision is a Christian school, and it’s already taking shape.

The building the church now calls home sits on a property alongside 103rd Street SE where, back in 1930s, a woman taught kids in a small, makeshift schoolhouse, said the Rev. DJ Rabe, the church’s pastor. The building has been used as a church ever since.

For Rabe, who has been ministering to teenagers, it seemed like the perfect way to reach younger kids.

“We are finally at a point when we can say that we moved in. It was tough being called ‘the House’ without having a home.”

Rabe founded the House about three years ago. At first, they met at the Snohomish Boys &Girls Club. Rabe and his wife, Dottie, organized skating competitions for teenagers. Later, the church rented a huge warehouse on Old Hartford Road in Lake Stevens, where it was building a teen center and 5,000-square-foot indoor skate park. That dream was short-lived, Rabe said, as the city shut down the center before it officially opened in March.

That came as a blow, but the House’s congregation hardly missed a service. Another pastor called Rabe and offered the use of his building on 103rd Avenue SE.

At the same time, Linda Bosse, an educator from Lake Stevens, was carrying in her heart a calling to open a school. She approached a woman from her daughter’s school. That was Cheryl Angeles of the House Worship Center. Angeles, now a stay-at-home mom, has worked as a paraeducator.

Neither wanted to send their elementary school-age children to a public school.

They felt that God had brought them together just like he had brought the House to the property on 103rd Street SE. The Lighthouse Christian Academy was born.

Classes are scheduled to start Sept. 8. Bosse, the academy’s director, is starting with kindergarten and first grade and plans to add a grade per year, as well as preschool. The plan is to keep tuition low to appeal to families who are not looking at expensive private and Christian schools. The tuition is $3,250 per year.

The House is a nondenominational Christian church. People from different walks of life attend, but Rabe’s special connection to teenagers is rooted in his background.

The son of a teenage mother, he spent the first few year in foster care in Seattle’s tough Central District and White Center neighborhoods.

Rabe later went to live with his father, a military man. Rabe’s father and his wife, the woman Rabe calls “Mom,” divorced when he was 16. He took it hard and turned to drugs and alcohol.

“I made bad decisions. Here, we will be able to reach kids before they make those bad decisions,” Rabe said.

Katya Yefimova: 425-339-3452; kyefimova@heraldnet.com.

Now enrolling

Lighthouse Christian Academy is now enrolling for kindergarten and first grade. The House Worship Center is at 4109 103rd Avenue SE, Lake Stevens. www.lighthouseprep.com or 425-334-9422.