NEW CHILDREN'S FACILITY GRACES GORDONVILLE

The Abundant Life Church in Gordonville broke ground yesterday in preparation for the building of its new childrens' home and multi-purpose facility.

The 3,200-square-foot building, called The Shepherd's Cove, will be used as a temporary housing facility for troubled teens, a daycare center for children of substance abusers and a base for several of the church's existing programs.

David Butler, pastor of Abundant Life Church, thinks the need is great for this facility. "We already have families in the church who know people who can use a building like this," said Butler. "We feel like wherever there are human beings, one is bound to find hurting people.

"We want to somehow minister to these people. With this facility, we've taken it upon ourselves to do that."

The building itself, which has been in planning for about three months, has been discussed by Butler and his church members for years. "We felt like we had a vision. We've obtained quite a bit of acreage out here on these two busy intersections, and we wanted to do something to glorify God," said Butler.

He says the church need lots of things built, but the congregation thinks this is what God wants them to work on first.

Butler and his congregation plan on keeping The Shepherd's Cove as self-contained and self-sufficient as possible; several members of Abundant Life Church are even willing to help construct the building.

"We have men in our church who are contractors, excavators and builders. In fact, the only thing we don't have is an architect."

Numerous church members have volunteered their services to keep the facility going after it is erected. Registered nurses, counselors and childcare workers are already expressing interest in committing their time the facility.

Butler said it isn't exactly defined how the facility will be ran, but he does know that he and his congregation will attempt to keep its operation as private as possible.

"Any organization will have some regulations that they have to abide by, but we will hopefully not have to rely on federal or state aid," Butler said. "Our staff will be mostly on a volunteer basis. There will be people who come in and do, say janitorial work one night, or painting, or odds and ends."

Time and work, however, are not the only things that Abundant Life Church members are donating to this building. Nearly $18,000 has been donated by the congregation, $15,000 of it by two families alone. "With this kind of giving, I feel like the entire project is going to be completely self-sufficient. It's because of Him that we're going to be so successful," said Butler.

He estimates the cost of the project could be between $70,000 and $100,000.

A long-term goal for the facility is to house a mother and father who would be willing to reside in the facility permanently. The couple would prepare meals for the inhabitants of the house and oversee the activities of the facility.

A second long-range goal for The Shepherd's Cove is to provide its inhabitants with wholesome, stable surroundings and a strong religious influence.

"We want to make this a place where kids can come in and have good meals and a safe place to stay. But we also want to give them an environment that is God-centered and one that is healthy for their emotions," Butler said.

But the new building will not be used solely for housing. The Shepherd's Cove will also serve as a main office for many of the church's existing programs.

Butler is quickly running out of storage space for his food bank program. "We have sort of a 'daily bread' kind of a program going now. We feel like this project will not only give us the room we need for that, but will open some avenues for some of our other projects."

Their future projects? By the end of this year, Pastor Butler hopes to find a leader for a satellite church in south Cape. "We already have a bus ministry that brings people from that area to our church. Now we need to bring our church to them," Butler said. "If we could rent a building over there and hire someone to have services there, we could reach some people who really need to go to church."

Butler sees The Shepherd's Cove as "phase two" in an entire series of projects that are already in progress.

To Butler, the new facility sounds like a lot of hard work for the members of Abundant Life Church. "We're going to have to put in a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into this project. But the most exciting aspect of this whole undertaking will be the fact that, in the end, we will change people's lives."

Butler admits there are many future obstacles for the members of the church, but this does not deter him. "Once we get it built, we can become the outreach program that we need to be and that we are intended to be."