top of page

 

Our

Story

 

Welcome to the 808 Club!

 

 

Along Belleview Boulevard in Steubenville, Ohio, sits a hilltop house overlooking the Ohio River and the border with West Virginia.  The address that bears the number 808 sits at the highest point on its hill.  Fittingly, it was named Havencrest by the parents who raised their six children within its walls - Scott and Kimberly Hahn.  They placed the name they gave this house in wood letters above the portico at the home's entrance.

During their 25+ years in the home, the Hahns mentored many students studying at nearby Franciscan University.  Over the years, nearly 40 of these students lived with their family, including Timothy Gray, Curtis Martin, and Edward Sri, among a great number of others who went on to serve Mother Church in new and creative ways.  The book that tells the story of the Hahns' conversion to Catholicism - Rome Sweet Home - was written in this house.  The Hahns hosted many formation events, especially Bible studies for University students.  During their years at 808, the Hahns decided to build a large addition onto the back of the original 1929 brick structure - three-stories tall, consisting of three large rooms, one on top of the other.  After the Hahn's moved three doors down the street, 808 was rented to other families, including two other Catholic families well-known for their ministry work: John and Dawn Bergsma, and Keith and Iwona Major.  

 

In 2014, the Hahns placed the home up for sale.  It was purchased by Bill and Heather Keimig, who arrived in town to work on founding Franciscan's Catechetical Institute (CI), under the leadership of Dr. Petroc Willey.  The Keimigs raised their six children in the home, and like the Hahns, have welcomed others in the University's orbit to live with their family, including Tim Seman and Katrina Herlambang.  Through all the years of ownership by the Hahns and the Keimigs, the home has seen a high flow of life, hosting innumerable guests from a myriad of countries.  

 

In 2025, the rooms in 808 began to evolve towards a new mission - hosting courses, classes, and encounters focused on in-depth personal formation of children, parents, and missionaries.  Further discernment led to a decision to re-purpose and renovate the three large rooms at the back of the house.  The lowest room became an atrium, for the faith formation of children of all ages, and for parents to learn the gentle, prayerful ways pioneered by Maria Montessori and Sofia Cavalletti.  The middle room became a vivarium with over 100 live species from around the world, a conservatory of life to educate about the Creator through His creation.  The upper room became a place of prayer, an oratory centered upon the core Franciscan symbol - the San Damiano Cross - and walls holding relics of saints and unique frames inviting a creative exploration of faith's deepest challenge - to trust in all circumstances, in all difficulty.

808 has long been a place of mission, a place of sending, to form souls to be signs of hope in Christ Jesus. Within the intimacy of a home.

Within the spirit of Joshua's trusting declaration to the Israelites at Schechem:

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. ~ Joshua 24:15

On March 25, 2026 a fuller step in faith was taken: Havencrest Mission and Atrium was founded, on the Memorial of Mary, Mother of the Church.  Our logo features a Little Owl (Athena Noctura) perched on a wooden post.  This owl, the sacred companion of the virgin goddess Athena, is a symbol of pagan wisdom.  In Greek mythology, Athena is associated not only with wisdom, but also with warfare, having been born fully armored from the cleaved head of her father, Zeus.

Our Father's wisdom comes to perfect and uplift human knowing.  Mother Mary is the Seat of Wisdom, the Virgin Most Powerful, whose fiat inaugurates a new warfare with Satan, undoing Eve's surrender, under the grace won by the Jesus, the Man of Sorrows.

 

The motto of our ministry in Havencrest Mission & Atrium is Hodie Mariae non Athena - Today is Mary's not Athena's.  All our service to souls seeks this end: to foster zeal and ability in others to be witnesses of a higher wisdom - Mother Mary's leading to the Lumen Christi.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The image that we use as a symbol of Havencrest Mission & Atrium is based on a photograph taken by Ian Watson, a highly regarded British wildlife photographer based in Cumbria, England, known for his intimate and award-winning portrayals of local fauna.​  He gained national recognition through the photograph above, which he called "Balancing Act", featuring a delightful Little Owl.  The photo was lauded as Highly Commended in the 2017 British Wildlife Photography Awards (BWPA).  This image was later selected for a retrospective exhibition celebrating the "Best Animal Images of the Decade."  We are very grateful for his generous permission to share this striking photograph on our site!

Here lies the test of truth, the touchstone of evangelization: it is unthinkable that a person should accept the Word and give himself to the kingdom without becoming a person who bears witness to it and proclaims it in his turn. . .  In the long run, is there any other way of handing on the Gospel than by transmitting to another person one's personal experience of faith?  It must not happen that the pressing need to proclaim the Good News to the multitudes should cause us to forget this form of proclamation whereby an individual's personal conscience is reached and touched by an entirely unique word that he receives from someone else.

~ Pope Paul VI, On Evangelization in the Modern World, para. 24, 46

Little Owl, by Ian Watson

For she is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of His goodness.

~ Wisdom 7:26

Tetradrachm of Athens - 440-420 BC
Blessed Virgin, Mother of Sorrows Medal
HMA logo
San Damiano Crucifix
Havencrest name on the portico
808 Address
bottom of page