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Archive - Article 12
Appalachian Dream Center Operational!
5/25/01
An imposing old turn-of-the-century, four-story red brick building
that housed the Island Creek Coal Company store and headquarters
in Holden, West Virginia, for many years has witnessed its transformation
last month into the Appalachian Dream Center.
The 40,000-square-foot facility had changed ownership through successive
sales of the coal mine and was donated to Church of God Care Ministries
by its current owner, The A.T. Massey Coal Company.
The donation was inspired by the efforts of Pastor Michael Hartwell
and his congregation of the Verdunville church, located outside
nearby Logan, West Virginia, close to the Holden community. The
church sponsors a broad range of care and outreach ministries, and
the newly remodeled facility will house them.
Hartwell reflected on the building’s history. “The
company store carried food, clothing, furniture and other necessities
for my employees,” he said. “It was the center of life
for everyone who lived in this area.”
The new role of the facility will be considerably broader, including
a spiritual dimension, but the distribution of food, clothing and
medical care will be prominent.
“The basement warehouse will hold 10 truckloads of food,
including a walk-in freezer that will accommodate 40,000 pounds
of frozen goods,” explained David Lorency, Field Director
for Care Ministries.
Lorency and Hartwell announced the establishment of a senior adult
center and a medical clinic on the first floor. During summer months,
hot meals will be served to children. Many children in the area
eat cooked meals only once a day when school is in session.
The senior adult center is named in honor of Donna Hartwell, the
pastor’s wife, who died on Thanksgiving Day 2000. The many
outreaches of the Verdunville congregation were inspired by her
leadership and example. Her memory is honored with a plaque on the
center’s wall.
Staffing for most of the ministries will be provided by volunteer
workers from the Verdunville church and nearby congregations, under
the direction of Pastor Hartwell.
“The people who live in West Virginia and eastern Kentucky
are among the hardest-working, most industrious anywhere,”
Hartwell said, “but with the mine closings in the past few
years and the absence of alternative job opportunities, many families
are suffering and hopeless.”
The building’s second floor is being remodeled to house visiting
teams from among 2,000 LifeBuilders chapters, men’s ministry
groups from local church congregations throughout the nation. They
will come for three to seven days to restore homes, replace roofs,
refurbish churches, repair autos and otherwise help area residents.
Furniture for 27 bedrooms has been donated by Dale and Brenda Hughes,
owners of the Mountainview Holiday Inn in Cleveland, Tennessee.
On the third floor, a Master’s Commission providing training
for rural outreach will be housed. On adjacent property, a community
playground will provide care and recreation for children.
The inauguration of the Appalachian Dream Center took place March
15, 2001. Participants included Hartwell; Lorency; John D. Nichols,
director of Care Ministries; Carl Richardson, John Gregory and James
Byrd, board members; Ray H. Hughes Jr. of Lay Ministries; David
Griffis, administrative bishop of West Virginia; and Bill George,
editor in chief of Church of God Publications.
Guests from Joyce Meyer’s St. Louis Dream Center, a similar
kind of ministry in Missouri, and the Christian Appalachian Project,
a supporting partner of the Dream Center, also took part.
The Appalachian Dream Center is one of several cooperative ministries
in areas touched by poverty involving Operation Compassion, the
Children of the World project and other benevolence ministries of
the denomination. God is truly doing a great work!
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