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Mike and Michelle Raptis, who are making the
Hope Center facility available for community use, Pastor Dan Kenyon of
Wellsville Bible Church, chair of Mission Genesee Valley, and Casey Jones,
chair of the project Planning Group, all at center, are joined by some of the
more than two dozen pastors and lay persons who have been working on
development of the upcoming Center in Wellsville. From left are Denise Regan, David Peralta,
the Raptises, Kenyon, Jones, Anita Baird Jones, Robert Stern and Katie Rulison.
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A coalition of Allegany County churches is embarking on a
major new initiative to inject Help, Hope and Healing into the lives of
individuals and families who are struggling with all types of life issues.
Mission Genesee Valley, which has been focused for more than
a year on building community transformation and revival throughout the county,
is expecting to open a new Hope Center this coming summer at 4194 Bolivar Road,
across the drive from McDonald's drive-through at Wellsville.
It also hopes to facilitate expansion of the concept by
encouraging churches in other population centers to come together throughout
the county to meet their own community needs.
Initial focuses for the Hope Center will be on reading
assistance for children and adults, information, referral and advocacy for
individuals and families struggling with life issues, a Christian lending
library that also will encourage reading by giving away books to children and
adults, and seminars and workshops for the general public in regard to
significant life issues and for churches in regard to developing Communities of
Care within their congregations and communities.
Prayer also will be available for anyone with needs and for
community transformation and revival in all sectors of the county including,
but not limited to, individuals and families, churches and other Christian
organizations, social services and other human services entities, governments,
schools, businesses and areas of individual and community concerns.
The Center is being described as a Hub of Hope of Allegany
County Churches due to a desire to connect it with participating churches
throughout the area to which individuals and families can be referred for
embracing, non-judgmental local follow-up and support.
Organizers are quick to praise God for making the initiative
possible.
Pastor Dan Kenyon of Wellsville Bible Church, chair of
Mission Genesee Valley, said the way the facility became available to the
umbrella organization, together with the many ways in which God has provided
insight and timing into helping develop the project demonstrates sequences far
beyond anything the group could have planned.
It all started many years ago, he said, when area clergy
began meeting regularly for prayer for transformation and revival throughout
Allegany County.
A year ago January the national Sentinel Group presented a
two-night and a Saturday training in Wellsville to acquaint interested Allegany
County churches and individuals as to how transformation and revival has taken
hold in other areas throughout the world and how to seek a movement of God in
areas that are spiritually poor.
This was followed up with a May 2017 Solemn Assembly of some
120 church-goers participating in worship, declaration of community needs,
corporate repentance, and prayer. In
addition to daily, weekly, and twice-a-month prayer gatherings, county families
also have joined together since that time for unity picnics, drawing overflow
crowds for praise and worship, prayer, prayer walking, family strengthening
activities and more.
Weekly Journey to Transformation Friday night prayer
gatherings have been held on a rotating basis in various parts of the county,
directed at renewal of minds and hearts of individuals and families for county
and communities transformation and revival through prayer for the host and
other churches and Christian organizations, individuals, the community, county
and more.
Twice-a-month Sunday night praise and worship and prayer
gatherings also are held on a rotating basis for more extended petitioning of
the Holy Spirit to work in Allegany County.
The primary focus of these gatherings often involves particular subjects
such as families, veterans, the current prescription drug and heroin crisis and
other substance abuse concerns, employment and economic vitality, schools and
general life struggles.
These events, with live music, are designed to provide a
communities focus on combating issues of addiction, abuse, racism, suicide,
poverty, family dysfunction and more that pastors say are extremely serious
issues throughout this area, the United States and the world.
The current initiative evolved when Wellsville businessman
Michael Raptis and his wife, Michelle, felt called to donate use of one of four
storefronts they were in the process of purchasing at the Bolivar Road site for
use as a drop-in and information and referral center where people of all
backgrounds could feel comfortable in obtaining assistance outside the church
environment.
The organization of Christian churches, organizations and
individuals agreed in January to move forward, setting up a Planning Group led
by Casey Jones, who has been involved in outreach ministry to churches in
Southeastern Chester County, Pennsylvania and extending the effort during the
past year to Allegany County as a result of marriage. Jones happened to have been involved in
developing a nationally-recognized Christian Neighborhood Center in Norwich,
Chenango County, many years ago, along with other significant community development
projects in both Central and Eastern New York and Pennsylvania.
Jones said he joined the initiative when “it became apparent
that God was moving in Allegany County” and the Center's concept seemed to mesh
with the focus he had been given several years ago of helping churches develop
Communities of Care through “true collaborations that serve as the hands and
feet of Jesus.”
Soon after the Planning Group of different church and
organization representatives and interested individuals started meeting weekly,
it was contacted by Allegany Hope, another Christian organization that had been
seeking to expand a reading and literacy focus in the county for several years.
Upon researching this issue, it became apparent that poor
reading and literacy skills, estimated to negatively impact at least 7,000 to
8,000 individuals of all ages in the county, much higher than the national
average, is also related to early childhood trauma (ACEs) that can result in
adverse behaviors throughout life unless they are mitigated.
Once the group started to focus on this unanticipated
development, members became aware repeatedly of individuals suffering from this
issue which often leads to lack of job skills, family poverty, low self-esteem,
adverse behaviors, and even substance abuse and incarceration.
This concern led further to development of the Christian
library component when the Planning Group recognized that individuals with poor
or few reading skills are unable to obtain written information that can help
them deal with adverse situations, adequately address many physical and
mental/emotional needs, or even read the Bible for development of their
spiritual lives.
The drop-in and information and referral segments developed
further from experiences of more than two dozen individuals from multiple
churches who have participated in the planning process, along with those they
know.
Jones said there is a “multitude of government and human
services agencies and programs in Allegany County, as in many other locales,
that are providing services, many of them free, but are unknown to consumers.”
The Hope Center will develop trained volunteers to help
connect individuals having needs with existing services and also identify
services that aren't readily available
in the area to determine potential development through the churches network.
It will seek to provide safe, non-judgmental support both at
the Center and in participating churches where “ambassadors will be able to put
an arm around someone in need and help them connect with resources that can
help, both within churches and the community.”
This information focus also led to development of a seminars
and workshop venue where members of the public can come to receive information
on a wide range of subjects covering all life stages, from pre-conception to
post death. Although many organizations
provide information in different forms currently, the Hope Center will seek to
develop resources on an ongoing basis at times convenient to consumers. It also will publicize its own and other
provider assistance for widest possible dissemination, Jones said.
The Hope Center currently is slated to be open on a regular
basis from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Saturdays, although the intent is to expand and vary hours as it becomes
apparent as to how to best serve individuals in need and additional volunteers
are recruited.
One focus also will be on being of assistance to Spanish-speaking
and other populations, including the Amish, on an intergenerational basis.
Volunteers are being referred by area pastors, with
background checks required of all who will be working directly with
individuals.
Donations of equipment, new or gently used furnishings that
meet Center needs, and ;professional and manual labor assistance are being
accepted by contacting Jones at bps461@msn.com or (484) 435-0503 to determine
suitability. Tax deductible cash contributions
also can be made to Mission Genesee Valley at P.O. Box 203, Wellsville, N.Y.
14895, with the Hope Center noted on the remittance line.
Further information, ministry updates, and sketches of the
facility showing anticipated uses are available at www.facebook.com/TransformationJourneyUSA.
