Charlotte Observer - lakeneighbors.com                                                              Sunday, July 13 2008

 RELIGION

Faith Focus

Marty Minchen

ARDENT FAITH CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP

Hauling Trash

 

Ardent Faith Christian Fellowship is all about helping the community – and showing others how they can help, too.

The church, which began meeting in 2005, helps out in poorer neighborhoods throughout Huntersville several times a year. Recently, 10 Ardent Faith members took two trucks to the Holbrook area to help residents haul trash to Dumpster-like receptacles provided by the city.

Last year, the city provided four receptacles, and volunteers filled up about half of one of them, said Ardent Faith pastor Jeffrey Watson. This year, volunteers stopped working after three hours because both receptacles were full.

Ardent Faith Christian Fellowship is all about helping the community – and showing others how they can help, too. The church, which began meeting in 2005, helps out in poorer neighborhoods throughout Huntersville several times a year. Recently, 10 Ardent Faith members took two trucks to the Holbrook area to help residents haul trash to Dumpster-like receptacles provided by the city.

      

Last year, the city provided four receptacles, and volunteers filled up about half of one of them, said Ardent Faith pastor Jeffrey Watson. This year, volunteers stopped working after three hours because both receptacles were full.

Watson said the difference was that volunteers have learned that going door to door, asking people for their trash and taking it to receptacles, works.

“This year, we were much more proactive in going out and finding the garbage, which is what we've learned to do,” Watson said. The group towed away appliances, tree limbs, furniture, bicycles and any other items that residents had accumulated because they wouldn't fit in regular trash cans.

Some of the people in the neighborhood are elderly and aren't physically able to deal with large items they'd like to throw away, Watson said. Others can't afford to take the trash to the dump. “Had we not come by, there was no other way this was going to happen,” Watson said.

Another difference Watson saw was that this year, several neighborhood residents with large trucks joined the Ardent Faith volunteers to help. “They were just really helping one another, which is something of a different dynamic than last year,” Watson said.

“The town provided (the receptacles), we provided a little bit of elbow grease and some of the residents pitched in themselves. I think that's kind of the best case (scenario), where the church, the government and the residents are all working together.

“That's what I think made it really successful this time.”

A helping “buzz”

Ardent Faith's vision is to be a group that helps other community groups help people in the area.

Three years ago, when Ardent Faith hosted a community help day in a neighborhood, Watson said, 40 volunteers from four of five area churches or organizations would show up.

In April, Ardent Faith prepared 140 name tags for volunteers at a help day in Huntington Green mobile home park, but the tags ran out. The group, representing 15 churches and nonprofits, hauled away 13 tons of trash that day.   Watson said that now communities are asking when they'll come back, and pastors and churches are taking initiative on their own to help in the community.

“Some pastors have said there's been a buzz in their church, and they've gone out on their own now looking for needs in the community and starting their own programs,” Watson said. “I think that's great that the church is getting outside the walls and meeting the needs of the community.”

A community hub

Ardent Faith now meets at Torrence Creek Elementary, but Watson said the church is looking for land in southwest Huntersville near Huntington Green.

Watson said the town doesn't have any community centers – or plans for community centers – in that part of town.

“We're trying to get a place right next to (Huntington Green) so that it will give the community access to us and things we might do,” Watson said. “We'd have more opportunities to build relationships.”

Watson said the church would also be a “transformation center” for the community with programs such as tutoring and drug and alcohol-addiction recovery classes. “We want to make a difference in people's lives,” Watson said.

The church already is committed to the mobile home park. Church members provide transportation from Huntington Green to Ardent Faith's Sunday morning service, and the church has done several mobile home makeovers in the neighborhood.

“If we had even a couple of thousand square feet (of space), we could do a lot more to develop relationships there,” Watson said.

Meanwhile, Watson said, Ardent Faith will continue to serve as a resource for people and organizations who want to help, but don't know what to do.

“We believe there's a lot of resources that exist in the community,” Watson said.

Ardent Faith meets Sundays at 10:30 a.m. at Torrence Creek Elementary School,14550 Ranson Road, Huntersville; 704-875-7774; www.ardentfaith.org.