John Gibson said Serving You Ministries in Birmingham — which offers food and financial assistance — has been looking toward opening a second site for a couple of years now.
That dream became a reality Jan. 1 when The Grace Place in Bessemer merged with Serving You to become Serving You Ministries @ The Grace Place.
Natural fit
Gibson said it was a natural fit.
“The boards (of both organizations) are likeminded; we do a lot of similar stuff,” said Gibson, Serving You executive director. “We’re continuing to do the exact same thing.”
Both sites will offer food and financial assistance to families in need, as well as adding a couple of new components to their greater umbrella of ministry. For one, The Grace Place has a clothes closet, which Serving You doesn’t have.
“It will be nice to offer that to our families as a place they can go for clothes,” Gibson said.
Serving You also has a service called ELI Thrive, which helps families find safe and sustainable housing as well as create budgets, make goals and develop their work skills. Gibson said they will add ELI Thrive coaches to the offerings of The Grace Place sometime midyear.
The whole idea for the second site started two years ago when the leadership of Serving You began working toward a second location in Ensley, but things “came to a halt.”
Dream revived
That dream was revived two months ago when Gibson got the call from the leadership of The Grace Place.
Morrell Dodd, who at the time was chair of the board for The Grace Place, said they had been praying and looking for a new director to lead the 10-year-old ministry. They struggled to find someone who would be able to take it on as a part-time role, so they began looking toward what it would take to make it a full-time position.
Dodd said they reached out to Gibson to ask some questions about what that might involve based on how Serving You did it. But when they did, Gibson suggested they consider thinking outside the box, and he floated the idea of a merger.
“They had been looking for a ministry location on this side of town for about two years, and it became very obvious to us that God was leading us to joining them,” said Dodd, a member of Hunter Street Baptist Church in Hoover. “We’re absolutely convinced this is going to be a good thing.”
Gibson agreed and said he is grateful for the faithful volunteers who keep The Grace Place running, meeting tangible needs and praying with people who come in.
“It’s a good place, and we’re looking forward to renovating and expanding it even more in the future,” he said.
For more information, visit thegraceplaceonline.com or servingyou.org.
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