Brother Eddie attended the Full Gospel Assembly of God church in Newport for most of his youth, and then began attending Newport Church of God sometime in the late 1970’s. “Then I met my lovely wife, and she changed my world,” he says, referring to his wife of forty-two years Kristi Weber Hounshell. They were married in 1980 and have raised three children together. They also have thirteen grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren with two more on the way! Family is very important to Eddie and Kristi, and they feel that their church family is no exception. “We want everyone to feel welcome,” he says, “and just feel like they belong to the family as soon as they enter the church grounds.”

When Eddie first began attending Newport Church of God, Kristi’s dad was the pastor. They began traveling with her dad, helping him with his ministry. Eddie and Kristi eventually returned to Newport Church of God in 1997 with Brother Eddie taking over the pastorship. The two have spent twenty-five years ministering to the people of Newport and beyond with many different types of outreaches and other work for the Lord. The years that they were at Newport they prayed for bigger, and better facilities so that they could do more of God’s work. “We were limited at Newport,” he says, “and couldn’t really do all the things that we wanted to do for God and his people. God has answered our prayer and opened the door for us in the Eastgate area to do a greater work for Him.”

Pastor Eddie’s vision for Full Gospel House of Refuge is to see it grow for the whole family, with church functions for all ages. For a start, he’d like to see an adult Sunday school, a nursery, children’s ministry, teen ministry, and a new converts class. He also wants to have activities and events inside and outside of the church, and work on adding different outreach programs. “There needs to be something going on all the time,” he says, “we need to take the ministries and outreach programs the church used to have and the programs they’re doing now and build on that.” He feels very blessed to be the new pastor of Full Gospel House of Refuge and plans to use the building, the grounds, and the people that God has blessed him with to accomplish that “greater work” he has been called to do to build the church into a powerhouse for God.