Child-sized shovels and muddy shoes showed the younger members of Freshwater Church were just as eager as the adult member to pitch in at the second annual Labor for Your Neighbor Sunday.
The newly-opened Healing House and New Beginnings, a not-for-profit at 1418 W. Main St. to serve as shelter and resource for women returning to the community after time in prison or at a rehabilitation center, benefited from the church's generosity.
"I asked God for this; I did not ask man," said director Heather Glieck. "God put us in their heart. Like how the Healing House started with a prayer, I'm overwhelmed by God's goodness."
More than 50 members of the Southern Baptist-affiliated congregation helped build flower boxes, landscape flower beds, lay a 250-feet-long walking trail and finish a 22-feet-by-16-feet concrete pad surrounded by the thick woods behind the house.
Taking a day from traditional, sanctuary-style worship serves the Freshwater mission to reach out to its
community, said Elder David Ford. For Glieck's ministry, serving its first four clients, the comfortable access to a natural setting will give the residents a safe and peaceful place to continue working on their personal goals.
Glieck is looking forward to hosting a girls evening, inviting other local women to meet with her clients over a fire pit at the new wooded patio.
Last year, Freshwater Church's Labor for Your Neighbor Sunday benefited the city's McKay Park. And next year, they would like to find an apartment complex, whose tenants are mostly families with young children, where they could provide some needed improvements, Ford said.
"Our church strategy is more outside of the building and inside the community," Ford said.
In addition to the once-a-year congregation wide Labor for Your Neighbor, Freshwater Church has five Life Groups who are challenged to find smaller-scale community projects twice a year.
The church strives for a simpler activity format, allowing members to build stronger relationships with one another and within the community. The method is paying off, seeing the two-year-old church grow to more than 130 members, mostly those who have not been involved with church in the past or who have been away from a church family for some time.
"We want to be in the community, to love on people," Ford said. "Then, whatever God wants to do, he gets to do."
Projects like Labor for Your Neighbor allow the church to ask "what do you need?" and then meet community needs.
For the Healing House, it's a beautiful and safe place, where Freshwater members hope the ladies will be impacted in a positive, spiritual way.
"We hope this helps these ladies to refocus their life," Ford said.
Freshwater Church also hopes to maintain an ongoing relationship with the Healing House. Sunday, the church announced it will contribute $1-per-like on its Facebook page toward the Healing House, up to $500.
The Healing House also is up for a Quickbooks Small Business Award, based on community online voting.
And the second annual fundraiser for the not-for-profit has been set for 5-7 p.m. Sept. 29 at Memorial Park, featuring musical entertainment by the Solid Rock Family Church band.
Call 230-5830 or email to [email protected] for more information.
On the web:
www.smallbusinessbiggame.com/contests/sbbg/entries/8740
www.facebook.com/FreshwaterChurchJc?fref=ts
www.facebook.com/TheHealingHouseAndNewBeginnings