A Silent Night, a Healing Beginning

On Christmas Eve, Christ House welcomed its first patient.

On December 24, 1985, a quiet miracle unfolded on a cold Washington night. Christ House welcomed its very first patient—a man who would become a part of our story forever. His name was Winston McCoy.

In the weeks before Christmas, Dr. Martin met Winston at a small area health clinic near a soup kitchen where he often stopped for meals. Winston was worn down by illness and exhaustion. Chronic heart problems made every step painful. He had recently been treated in a local emergency room for congestive heart failure, only to be discharged back onto the street. Nights were spent in shelters where he was required to leave early each morning, and days were a grueling journey from one meal line to the next. Short of breath, struggling to walk long distances, and losing hope, Winston was simply trying to survive.

Dr. Martin recognized immediately that Winston was too sick to be outside. He offered to bring him to Christ House—a new, untested endeavor, not yet known to the city but born from our founders’ conviction that people healing from illness needed more than a bed for the night. They needed time, care, stability, and the assurance that their lives mattered.

Winston agreed and soon took his place in Christ House history by becoming our first admission.

When he arrived, the staff—small, earnest, and filled with a sense of holy purpose—gave him their full attention. As the first patient, he received an abundance of care, far more than he expected. Dr. Janelle Goetcheus recalled with a smile, “He finally closed the door to his room,” overwhelmed by how many people wanted to help him. Yet there was something about his presence that touched her deeply. “I can also remember sitting in our Christ House Christmas Eve service believing that indeed an angel had just arrived.”

Winston stayed for several weeks as his strength slowly returned. The nurses monitored his heart failure carefully. Staff members helped him secure benefits he had long been unable to obtain. And when he was stable enough to leave, Winston moved into an apartment—his own home after years of living on the margins.

He lived there for ten years. Ten years of safety, dignity, and connection. Ten years of monthly visits with Dr. Martin for care and medications. Ten years longer than any physician had expected.

His story became the first proof of what Christ House could offer: not just medical respite, but the possibility of renewed life. Healing and hope.

As we mark our 40th anniversary, Winston’s legacy still illuminates our mission. He reminds us of the founders’ brave vision— Dr. Janelle and Rev. Allen Goetcheus, Dr. David and Marja Hilfiker, Dr. Don and Mrs. Ellen Martin, and Sister Marcella Jordan, and the early community who believed that healing happens when people are met with tenderness and unwavering presence.

Janelle often reflected on that first year with both gratitude and longing. “When we opened Christ House,” she once said, “we prayed that we would one day be able to close our doors—that there would be an end to homelessness, and a need for our services. Sadly, that has not come to pass.”

Yet the hope that guided those early days remains undimmed. The same spirit that welcomed Winston on Christmas Eve continues to guide every patient who enters our doors today—forty years later, still offering refuge, still offering healing, still offering light in the darkest seasons.

This is where our story began, and it lives on in every person who turns to Christ House for healing and hope.