Our Story — Providence Life Services

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YOU DESERVE BETTER
"Our people deserve better than this!" thought Richard Mulder to himself as he toured existing nursing homes in the late 1950s. The facilities were crowded, the rooms were small, the staff overworked. Mr. Mulder could see why he had been contacted to be part of a better solution.

MEETING NEEDS
It was the board of the newly-formed Rest Haven Christian Association who had contacted him. Working to meet a need first recognized by the deacons of Second Christian Reformed Church of Englewood, the Association felt called to create a new ministry for their elderly church members. After seeing the only care available at the time, Rich Mulder agreed: things had to change.

BREAKING NEW GROUND
In 1959 the Rest Haven Christian Association broke ground for the first Christian nursing home in the area. At the ceremony, Rev. John Van Harn pronounced over the undeveloped site, "This place shall be the scene of the continuous unfolding of the purposes of God in the ministry of mercy. From this small beginning the calls for enlargement and amplification will be many." His words turned out to be prophetic.

NEW NEEDS, NEW SERVICES
What started decades ago as a single Christian nursing home in Palos Heights, Illinois, has now expanded to provide even more aging services to even more people. We continue to believe that "people deserve better," and we continue to develop new services to meet the needs we see.

A HISTORY OF GROWTH

1958

First Board of Directors appoints Richard Mulder to serve as
Executive Director

1959

Cornerstone laid for Rest Haven Central Christian Convalescent
Home in Palos Heights

1960

First 50 beds dedicated at Rest Haven Central
First Torchlight Dinner held to celebrate the new ministry

1969

Holland Home, a ministry providing retirement housing
since 1914, merges with Rest Haven

1971

Groundbreaking ceremony for a new Holland Home in
South Holland, Illinois

1975

Groundbreaking ceremony for a second convalescent home,
Rest Haven South, in South Holland, Illinois

1980

In Crete, Illinois, a Holiday Inn is transformed into Village Woods
Christian Retirement Community

1984

A third convalescent home, Rest Haven West, is developed in
Downers Grove, Illinois

1986

Richard Schutt succeeds Richard Mulder as Executive Director

1988

Groundbreaking ceremony for Saratoga Grove, a retirement
community in Downers Grove, Illinois

1993

Providence Home Health Care agency is formed to meet the needs
of seniors who are not ready to move into a retirement community

1997

Royal Park Place and Royal Atrium Inn senior communities in
Zeeland, Michigan, join the Rest Haven Christian Services family

1999

Grand opening of Victorian Village campus in Homer Glen, Illinois

2001

Rest Haven purchases Emerald Meadows, an assisted living
campus in Grand Rapids, Michigan

2002

Grand opening for Rest Haven's Education Institute in Tinley Park, Illinois
Rest Haven offers Hospice services in Illinois

2004

New developments begin in St. John, Indiana and Elmhurst, Illinois

2006

Board of Directors begins feeling "Rest Haven" Christian Association
has outgrown its name

2007

A fourth convalescent home, Haven Park, in Zeeland, Michigan, joins the Rest Haven family

2008

Rest Haven Christian Services changes its name to Providence Life Services

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