By Grace Thornton
Correspondent, The Alabama Baptist
Amanda Allday says one of the things she enjoys most about her job is that, on many days, it feels like she’s seeing people go on a God-inspired treasure hunt.
“Some people, they’ll come in and happen to find something that they were needing, and they’ll say, ‘I believe it was meant for me to find this,’” she said.
That’s why the Caring Heart Center is there, said Allday, a member of Antioch Baptist Church near Millry who serves as manager. The large thrift shop, a ministry of Washington Baptist Association, offers clothes, furniture and other household items for people who need them most when they need them most.
Helping families
“Our prices are not very high at all,” she said. “And we often offer things to people who need them at no cost, like people who have had a house fire.”
In recent weeks, they’ve had several families like that who have come through their doors, Allday said.
“It’s definitely been a help to them,” she said.
Larry Thompson, director of missions for Washington Baptist Association, said the Caring Heart Center has “made a big difference” in the community.
The ministry gathers donations from churches and individuals in the area and sells the items at a low price.
Then those profits — after paying for the overhead of the building — are put into the association’s benevolence fund, which is used to pay up to $75 on utilities for people who have received a cutoff notice, Thompson said.
“We can do that once a year for people who need it,” he said.
The association had known for a while that it needed a better way to address the needs in its community and had “struggled with this for several years and researched what we could do” before opening the Caring Heart Center, he said.
“It’s helped us tremendously and the profits help us even further in helping people,” Thompson said.
The ministry operated for a while in a small building — about 1,000 square feet — before moving to a larger 4,600-square-foot facility in 2009.
Connie Bryan, a longtime volunteer at the center, said the move greatly expanded their possibilities for ministry and bringing in more people is exactly what they’re after.
‘Contributing to community’
A member of Chatom Baptist Church, Bryan said her favorite part about serving at the Caring Heart Center is interacting with the people.
“It’s a mission. You feel like you’re doing something for people who really need it,” she said. “Our prices are such that people can afford it and some of the items still have the price tags on them — they’ve never been worn.”
She would know — she personally goes through many of the bags of donated items, pricing them and getting them ready to display.
“We all feel like we’re contributing to the community by getting to work here,” she said of herself and the dozen other volunteers who serve at the center on a regular basis. “It’s not easy work. But it’s rewarding in lots of ways.”
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