Etowah missions center feeds, clothes hundreds each month

Food donated to Etowah Baptist Missions Center barely gets unpacked before it is handed out.
  
On April 23, for example, there were 19 food orders. So many people sought help at the missions center that day that the food pantry had to be restocked three times, said volunteer Thelma “Sam” Newkirk.
  
Meeting physical and spiritual needs is what has been happening at the center for 20 years. An open house April 29 celebrated that ministry.
  
The center was established in 1987 in a storefront on Wall Street in Gadsden’s Alabama City area. It was open three days a week and could assist people only as the incoming donations allowed, said Dianne Lowe, church and community ministries director for Etowah Baptist Association.
  
Approximately 2,500 families were assisted the first year and two people asked Jesus Christ to come into their heart.
  
Fast-forward to 2007 when the center, which is open four and a half days a week, provides food for 545 people and clothing for 393 in one month alone as it did in March. Alison Hand, the acting director, said the center may see as many as 200 families a month. 
  
From November 2006 through January 2007, the center aided 1,271 with clothing and 1,652 with food. Pastoral counseling was given to 443, Bibles were handed out to 279 and 19 people accepted Christ as Savior, reported Bryan Blass, pastor of First Baptist Church, Gadsden, in Etowah Association. 
  
Blass is one of the center’s volunteer chaplains and a member of its board of directors. 
  
The center — now encompassing three storefronts — also provides hygiene and household items, school supplies at the beginning of the school year and linens in case of a house fire; addresses special needs, such as prescription medication, formula and baby layettes; and helps with utilities and gas money for getting to work.
  
Lowe added that the center has several programs in place for teaching skills that will allow individuals to better their circumstances.
  
Etowah Association Director of Missions Gary Cardwell said the center “is much more than an enabling ministry. … The physical needs are used as a platform to share Christ.”
  
Though the center is administered by and receives the majority of its operating expenses from Etowah Association, it is the cooperative effort of individuals, groups and churches of various denominations that maintains it, Lowe said. The approximately 50 volunteers, 24 volunteer chaplains and members of the board are from different faiths.
  
Sources of funding are similarly diverse. But Lowe said about $16,000 comes through the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual World Hunger Offering. 
  
For more information on the center, call 256-546-2980.