Blessed with growth: How Elim Village came to Chilliwack

When Elim Village opened its first campus in Surrey in 2001, the vision was to create a Christian community where seniors could continue to live alongside their spouses as they aged. A decade later, that vision had become a thriving reality. Elim Village Fleetwood had grown into a community of homes, friendships, care, and shared faith — and it was that community that caught the attention of a group of people in Chilliwack.

At a church council meeting in Chilliwack in 2012, Wally Tenbrinke heard his pastor say, “Every community needs Christian churches, Christian schools, but it also needs a Christian retirement home.”

Wally, a founding board member of Elim Housing Chilliwack Society (EHCS), immediately thought of Elim Village in Surrey.

After the meeting, he called his business friend Ron Haan, a founding and current EHCS board member, and arranged a tour of Elim Village Fleetwood.

The visit quickly changed their thinking. The two-acre site they had initially considered for a new Elim Village campus would not be enough.

“When we got there, we were totally amazed. We didn’t realize it was as big as it was,” Ron Haan remembers. “If we’re going to do Elim, it had to be way bigger.”

Read more: When faith became action: The Bible study that sparked Elim Village

At the same time, another connection was forming. The Ebenezer Society had previously operated a small care facility, but eventually ran into financial difficulties.

“After they closed, the board still wanted to try to provide some kind of care,” recalls Ben Langelaar, a founding ECHS board member. “Of course, they knew about Elim and wanted to see whether we could do an Elim out this side of the valley.”

Those conversations eventually led Elim to explore the Fraser Valley, including Abbotsford. But Chilliwack began to stand out and the search for the right property eventually led to Garrison Crossing.

The former CFB Chilliwack property, a nine-acre site owned by Diverse Properties, offered room for Elim to grow. For Ron Funk, CEO of Diverse Properties, selling the property to Elim was about more than development.

“I’ve been asked in the past, why would I sell this piece to Elim Village rather than just develop it all? One of the big reasons was I liked Elim Village and I guess I liked Ron Pike. And I liked what he said and what Elim Village had done in Surrey and how they treated my mother-in-law. That was very important to me.”

Read more: Photo Gallery: The Day Elim Village Broke Ground

Looking back, Ron Pike, Elim Village CEO, sees a familiar pattern in how the Garrison Crossing campus came together.

“The whole experience with Garrison was almost a déjà vu moment from what I had heard of Elim Fleetwood occurring. It really was this coming together of people, the coming together of an idea, a concept, land. It all kind of worked together and it was not for the faint of heart.”

On September 10, 2016, that idea took a major step forward. The Sequoia, the first building Elim Village would build in Chilliwack, broke ground. And it was only the beginning.

The Sequoia joined The Redwood, which was already on the property when Elim acquired it, and was followed by The Douglas, The Hawthorn, The Maple and, most recently, The Cedar.

Ten years after that first groundbreaking, Elim Village Garrison Crossing has grown into a community of its own. But its story is also part of the larger Elim story: to fulfill the original vision of a small Bible study group to create a Christian community where spouses could age together.