{"id":811,"date":"2026-04-08T18:09:43","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T18:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emeraldcoast.net\/index.php\/2026\/04\/08\/from-death-to-life-stephanie-mcminns-begenerous-ministry-brings-hope-to-local-women\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T18:09:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T18:09:43","slug":"from-death-to-life-stephanie-mcminns-begenerous-ministry-brings-hope-to-local-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emeraldcoast.net\/index.php\/2026\/04\/08\/from-death-to-life-stephanie-mcminns-begenerous-ministry-brings-hope-to-local-women\/","title":{"rendered":"From Death to Life: Stephanie McMinn\u2019s BeGenerous Ministry Brings Hope to Local Women"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Michelle Ruschman<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Stephanie McMinn, founder of BeGenerous, has been providing resources and coming alongside women and their families since 2010. It all began with simply providing diapers to single mothers, but since then, her organization has grown into a source of hope for the women of Okaloosa, Walton, and Bay counties. \u201cI was 16 when I had my first child, so I know what it\u2019s like to be a young mother with limited resources. There were food pantries and clothes closets, but there was no diaper bank. One day, I called the health department trying to see where I could help, and the case worker shared with me that while she watched a client dress her baby, she noticed that the baby was dressed without a diaper. When she pointed out that it was missing, the mom told her she hadn\u2019t forgotten. She hadn\u2019t put it on because they couldn\u2019t afford to have the baby in a diaper while they were at home. From that story, I started going into these homes and seeing how much the mothers were struggling when the home had an absent father, or the dad was in prison. There was poverty, drugs, and sexual exploitation. Once I saw this happening in my own backyard, it wasn\u2019t something I could unsee, and I knew I had to do something about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Engage<\/p>\n

BeGenerous now includes \u201cThe Yellow House\u201d and \u201cPearl House,\u201d which offer refuge, healing, and transformation through a 24-month residential recovery program. The women come from the most desperate situations, including domestic abuse, sex trafficking, incarceration, and, especially close to Stephanie\u2019s heart, addiction. In many situations, BeGenerous has been the bridge from death to life.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, though, it\u2019s when you\u2019re battling darkness for others that you can be in the greatest fight of your own.\u00a0 Less than a year after starting BeGenerous, while Stephanie was helping so many families find their fresh start, Stephanie\u2019s husband was in the midst of recovery while their sons were in the grip of addiction themselves. Today, Stephanie can say that her oldest son has recovered from addiction and is helping her in her massive efforts, but in 2021, the family got devastating news. \u201cMy baby boy, Gage, was 22 years old when he overdosed on fentanyl and passed away. Here I am, doing work in the community, and my kids know what I do, but addiction doesn\u2019t respect anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

To honor Gage, Stephanie started an outreach called \u201cEnGAGE: From Death to Life,\u201d an event that focuses on victory. Along with the concert featuring artists, ASAP Preach and Adrion Butler, attendees will hear messages of hope, learn about community resources, shop with local vendors, and local food trucks will be on-site.\u00a0 Last year, a concert-goer asked to be baptized. That will continue this year with the hopes that it will become an annual tradition. \u201cDuring one intermission, a guy came up and said, \u2018I want Mama Steph to baptize me. I want to lay this down and leave it behind.\u2019 I just dove right into that water with him, and the next thing you know, there\u2019s a line of kids waiting to be baptized. We got to close that night, soaking wet, and we knew we had to make this a part of every year from now on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Engage<\/p>\n

Coming to EnGAGE means throwing your expectations to the wind and letting the Holy Spirit move. That\u2019s when you know it\u2019s going to be fun!<\/p>\n

EnGAGE will be held on April 25th<\/strong> at 1140 Circle Dr, Defuniak Springs Lakeyard. If you are a vendor, food truck, or non-profit resource who would like to be part of this dynamic event, you can email info@begenerousinc.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Michelle Ruschman is a local artist, speaker, and writer. She can be reached at\u00a0<\/i>michelleruschman@gmail.com<\/i><\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<\/i>michelleruschman.com<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

The post From Death to Life: Stephanie McMinn\u2019s BeGenerous Ministry Brings Hope to Local Women<\/a> appeared first on South Walton Connections<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By\u00a0Michelle Ruschman Stephanie McMinn, founder of BeGenerous, has been providing resources and coming alongside women and their families since 2010. It all began with simply providing diapers to single mothers, but since then, her organization has grown into a source of hope for the women of Okaloosa, Walton, and Bay counties. \u201cI was 16 when
\nThe post From Death to Life: Stephanie McMinn\u2019s BeGenerous Ministry Brings Hope to Local Women appeared first on South Walton Connections.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Michelle Ruschman Stephanie McMinn, founder of BeGenerous, has been providing resources and coming alongside women and their families since 2010. It all began with simply providing diapers to single mothers, but since then, her organization has grown into a source of hope for the women of Okaloosa, Walton, and Bay counties. \u201cI was 16 when<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emeraldcoast.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emeraldcoast.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emeraldcoast.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emeraldcoast.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emeraldcoast.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/emeraldcoast.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emeraldcoast.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emeraldcoast.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emeraldcoast.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}