By Taylor Boyd
LifeSpring Resource Center of Hope and Healing celebrated its grand opening on April 27 with a ribbon cutting.
The center is affiliated with the nearby Stuart Seventh Day Adventist Church, but membership with the church is not required to receive services from LifeSpring.
Alan Dean, retired pastor of the church and member of LifeSpring, said the center is a community outreach service.
“It’s a resource center, either through direct classes or kind of a library situation where people can come in and read things on their own pertaining to health, gardening, creation, finances, or family life, all types of items like that. They can come in and learn on their own, or we will be having classes to help teach in those areas too,” he said.
Dean said the center illustrates what the group wants to do, which is bring the feeling of spring life into people who are depressed or maybe do not have positive thinking.
“We plan to have resources for hope and healing both, physically and spiritually, emotionally and mentally. We just want to give encouragement to people,” he said.
Services are open to all, he added.
“We encourage anybody and everybody to come and take advantage of it. I like the fact that we’re ready to get started. I like the fact that people were here to understand why we’re here,” he said.
Dean said produce grown in the small garden on the property will be given to visitors in need.
“We also want to have a little corner for toiletries and paper products that people can’t get on food stamps, so they can come here and pick some up when they need it. We want to be a service to the low-income people too,” he said.
After the ribbon cutting, Dean said he believes group can now get started and set some hours to help the community.
Currently, the center does not have any definite hours of operation, but it will be open during classes, he said.
“Eventually, I would like to see it open four days a week, so then people could just come in and meet us and tell us what they’d like” to do or need help with, he said, and added there typically will be one or two volunteers manning the center when it is open, to greet visitors, explain the materials and scheduled events and answer any questions.
Dean said the idea for the center started about 10 years ago, but the group first worked on the church, fellowship hall, and the kitchen.
“This was our last project, but it was in our minds a long time ago of something that we wanted to do. The church is for the community, it’s not a self-serving social organization. It’s been the purpose of this since the beginning,” he added.
For more information and to register for classes, call 276-694-4775.
