The Joy of Helping Others: An Interview with David Ashe ’00 and Tessa Ashe
David Ashe ’00 and his wife Tessa have 3 daughters: Lucy (10), Charlotte (6), and Kylee (12), their great niece, who has been with them since she was 3. They livein St. Petersburg, Florida, where they work as educators and run a non-profit ministry called New Beginnings Youth Homes, Inc.
Well, God turned all our hearts toward a different opportunity: for Tessa and I to take over the ministry, expand it from its original narrow mission, but continue its good work. Daily, we interacted with both kids and adults that needed a soft landing, and now we had properties that could be used for just that! We adjusted the layout of the two homes, each with 6 bedrooms and 3 1/2 baths, so they could be used for various housing needs. We have helped military veterans lacking credit, women escaping from domestic abuse, missionaries and missionary kids transitioning to the states or visiting, people trying to escape the cycle of homelessness, people burned out from careers, people recovering from addiction and needing temporary housing after successful completion of recovery programs, and struggling single moms. We used Airbnb to make the most of the spaces and support the ministry, in between residents, and we even found people who were appropriate program participants through Airbnb!
What effects have you seen in the lives of those who have benefitted from your organization?
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David has a Bachelor’s degree from Kenyon College in English Literature. After college, he helped found the Lifeteen program at his church. He taught several forms of dance for eight years after moving to Florida and has taught English at the High School level for nearly 10 years. He is currently an Academic Team Coach and Gaming club sponsor. Tessa’s degrees include a Bachelors in Ministry and Leadership from Trinity College and a Masters in Educational Leadership from Argosy University. She has worked with Mercy Ships/Youth with a Mission (YWAM) in the Caribbean and Going the Distance Adventure Ministries, and helped prepare and debrief people going on mission trips. She has been an interpreter for the deaf, an American Sign Language teacher in the public school system, World Languages department chair, Behavior Specialist, and Assistant Principal.
What led you to get involved in the nonprofit ministry New Beginnings Youth Homes?
DA: Ministry, for me, was always about education: volunteering with church programs and church small groups. Ministry for Tessa was about reaching out and helping people where they were at, both here in Tampa and around the world, wherever God sends you. Very early in my relationship with Tessa, we realized that we both wanted our investments (time, talents, treasure) to be in real estate, in experiences, and in helping others. To that end, we always look for properties with more space than we need, so we can have roommates. Well, God hasn’t blessed us with a real estate empire like we had hoped for, but he has blessed us with homes that allow us to do more than just feed the hungry and clothe the naked.
When we came across the New Beginnings ministry, it was actually while we were looking for a home big enough for my father-in-law to move in with us, when he got to that place in life. Our house had narrow stairs, and they wouldn’t work for a person with vertigo issues. The owner of New Beginnings was looking to offload the properties so she could pursue ministry out of the U.S., but the ministry’s board prayed and voted not to sell the properties to a commercial developer. She could tell we were interested, but the purchase price was not what we could afford.
Well, God turned all our hearts toward a different opportunity: for Tessa and I to take over the ministry, expand it from its original narrow mission, but continue its good work. Daily, we interacted with both kids and adults that needed a soft landing, and now we had properties that could be used for just that! We adjusted the layout of the two homes, each with 6 bedrooms and 3 1/2 baths, so they could be used for various housing needs. We have helped military veterans lacking credit, women escaping from domestic abuse, missionaries and missionary kids transitioning to the states or visiting, people trying to escape the cycle of homelessness, people burned out from careers, people recovering from addiction and needing temporary housing after successful completion of recovery programs, and struggling single moms. We used Airbnb to make the most of the spaces and support the ministry, in between residents, and we even found people who were appropriate program participants through Airbnb!
What has been the most rewarding or impactful part of this experience for you and your family?
TA: The opportunity to meet and serve so many people in such varied places in life. Our kids have benefitted from the wealth of relationships that have passed through our doors and our property. Almost every Sunday Night we have a fireside chat on property in the garden that was built by our residents. It includes a fire pit, trampolines for the kids, strawberry trees that are a constant source of fruit snacks, a fish pond, a compost area, and butterfly-enticing blooms that continue to be a source of engagement for all who enter. All group celebrations and holidays occur in this outdoor living space, and organically it has grown both spiritually as well as physically.
DA: It was really amazing to find how the neighborhood comes out to support you. Knowing that we are a ministry, the neighbors are more willing to step up and help with things like transportation, fixing (or even installing) things in the ministry’s shared yard, donating firewood or yard fixtures, and inviting the residents when there’s a block party cookout. We were able to expand the food bank ministry to neighbors as well as residents. It’s also been wonderful to see how the kids embrace others. We already taught them the joy of helping others by giving people food (and even clothes, in the right moments). Through this ministry, they have seen how other people can have their lives turned around through Christian generosity and Christ’s grace.
What effects have you seen in the lives of those who have benefitted from your organization?
TA: We have seen many of our residents go on to buy their own homes, secure great jobs, even go on international pilgrimages to recreate what we have done here after spending time at New Beginnings.
DA: Peace is the biggest one, when a landlord isn’t breathing down their necks. We can’t save people from everything, but we can give them grace and mercy in the financial realm. We don’t make being an active Christian a requirement for our program, though we run it with a Christian code of behavior and ethics. It is always amazing to help people find their faith if it was shaken, or strengthen their faith if it was seeds sown on rocky soil. We have weekly fire pit parties where friends and residents can hang out and share praise reports and ask for prayers on things.
As the ministry’s purposeful mission is to provide a soft landing, that implies a “moving on.” We have helped people find other housing, rented or loaned vehicles, helped people develop good rent history, helped people develop marital skills, given rides to and from the airport, and even helped people get a driver’s license and citizenship papers. Something Tessa learned early in ministry, and that serves us both as educators: You have to give people food, or clothes, or milk, or water, or whatever they need. Then you can earn the right to speak into their lives in meaningful ways, and they can be prepared to learn and grow. This ministry lets us see a longer term of growth than we did in most prior ministries (except education, where we can see kids grow over several years.)
What are one or two of your fondest Strake Jesuit memories, and how did they form you into the person you are today?
DA: My freshman year, I had come from public school, and I only knew two other people at Strake Jesuit or St. Agnes: my twin brother, who was mercilessly annoying at that age, and an acquaintance from church that ran in the athletic circles and had little interaction with me. I didn’t really know how to make friends, so my social life was a struggle. I spent class time learning, but lunch, when everyone from both schools had lunch at the same time, I was lonely. I sat on the benches outside the library, watching other kids (affectionately and honestly, I can label them nerds) have friendly interactions. Eventually, I became friends with many of them myself, taking the leap into those social waters. Because of the caliber of students that Strake Jesuit attracts, and the quality of students that Strake Jesuit strives to produce, I was able to see better examples of people to emulate, better models for me to strive to become.
It was true of the teachers, as well. Years later, I like to believe I emulate some of my favorite teachers from Strake Jesuit in my own professional life. My meticulous understanding of both ballroom dance principles and reading and writing principles come from my freshman English teacher, one of the Jesuit priests. He understood that if we didn’t come out of Freshman English with an understanding of the foundations of grammar, there was no way we would be able to build anything worthwhile using it.
Even before freshman year started, I was on a work grant and helped put together all the computers in the computer lab (summer of ’96). I don’t remember the labor as much as I remember the camaraderie I had with the other students and the Jesuit leading us in the work: building computers, laying cables, and wiring the connection points in classrooms around campus. Work could be fun, and productive work is even more fun. My English teacher, either sophomore or junior year, had been a trapeze artist prior to becoming a teacher. He told the story of falling once, and in embarrassment more than injury, he slipped away to his private tent. The ringleader was furious with him, not for falling, but because he didn’t reassure the audience that he was fine; they were distracted by concern the rest of the night. We as leaders and as teachers and as parents have every right to fall sometimes, but in honesty and integrity, we just need to show that we can stand back up again, and make things right when necessary. Learning is building, foundations are necessary, and building is work that can be fun, if we let ourselves enjoy the process.
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