Peace Ike was raised Christian, but in 2017 she found herself in a “low-faith place,” as she describes it. Demoralized and uncertain of what to do next, she traveled to Greece with three close friends.
During hours of conversation and reflection there, she had a revelation: God wanted her to open a communal space. So upon returning to Philadelphia, she purchased a six-bedroom house in Germantown. She was single, without roommates, or a plan for how to pay the mortgage.
“When I hear things clearly, I go for it,” Ike, now 41, said.
Within two months, the rooms were filled, she said.
Originally, the house didn’t have a spiritual focus, though Ike, who works as a strategist on workplace culture and conflict, would sometimes host worship nights. She hadn’t selected for religious roommates, but she saw her role as helping people to “live well” and grow spiritually. She began her own mornings with devotional time; she would invite people to stay who had nowhere else to go, and pray with strangers who were suffering.
By its second year, the house had become an intentional “Christ-centered” place. As Ike described it in a recent post for a new roommate, “We range in ages from 29-47 and we truly love the Lord and each other … The greatest thing that bonds us is our passion for Christ.”
The house is now in its ninth year and is home to six women.
Christina Levy, 31, has lived in the home for almost six years. Levy was born into a Christian Apostolic home in Jamaica; her father was a minister and her mother did missionary work. When she enrolled in Penn’s Graduate School of Education, she moved directly from her family’s home in New Jersey into Ike’s house.
The women are all independent, with different schedules, but with a common vision for how they want to live. They joke that their kitchen island, where they bring their complaints and longings, is like church. Three of them also attend the same church in Bristol on Sundays.
“It really feels like we’re sisters and we’re all connected by the same Father, and that’s God,” Levy said.
The following, as told to Zoe Greenberg in separate interviews, has been edited for length and clarity and combined.
On deciding to move in
Levy: I tend to be the kind of person who looks for signs. Like, “Should I do this?” I felt like the Lord was really leading me toward this house.
On welcoming new housemates
Ike: Any time a woman moves into the house, we have a long hangout, and we get to know her. We go over personality types. We go over pet peeves. Are you a night owl or a morning person? How do you prefer to handle conflict? All of the things that you would want to know about someone that you’re going to be spending your life with.
On becoming a ‘house of discipleship’
Levy: No one’s trying to be Christian here. It’s not a rigid thing. All the girls that come in, it’s like they carry something that someone else in the house is going to need.
Ike: There’s a term called ‘disciple’ in Scripture. Jesus had 12 disciples. He taught them everything he knew, and he always directed people back to God. Oftentimes, I’ll talk about this as a discipleship house. When it started, I was certainly discipling a lot of young women who needed direction in life. Now it’s like we are discipling each other.
On whether non-believers can live there
Ike: I always tell people, you don’t have to share our faith to be a part of this home, but I want them to know that it is the central thing that glues us. It’s in all of our conversations. When someone comes home and they’re having a hard day, we sit and we listen and we pray with them.
On being a landlord among peers
Ike: I have been very adamant about that — don’t treat me like a landlord. I am just one of y’all, but when something needs to be done, come and call me, and I’ll get it done right away. It allows me to feel like I’m at home with my sisters and not on the job all the time.
On house rules
Ike: With six women, we do not have men overnight. My experience has taught me that it’s really easy to get into conflict when we don’t know your boyfriend as well as you know your boyfriend. If you want to go spend time at his house, that’s fine. We also don’t do drug use.
On kicking people out of the house
Ike: It hasn’t always been roses. There have been girls who’ve just been dishonest, wanting to do those things that we agreed we would not do as a home. Part of the contract is when you do that, then we ask you to leave.
On what comes next
Levy: If anything would make me leave my sisters here, I feel like it would be a door opening for me to get my PhD or career elsewhere. And of course a man.
Ike: When I pursue a relationship, I’m not going to live in the home with five other women with my spouse. The house can continue as a community house if there are women here who are invested in that. Anything is possible. I think that I am going to enter a season where I will enjoy some privacy with my spouse. I would love that for a short period. But then I know myself: Two years in, I’m like, “Oh, we should really rent out that spare room.”
This story is part of a series about life partners across the Philadelphia area.
If you want to share your story about who you’re navigating life with, romantically or otherwise, write to lifepartners@inquirer.com. We won’t publish anything without speaking to you first.
