Sean C. Morgan
HOPE Center co-directors Nancy Robeck and Lynn Wiens and the center’s board of directors will pass the reins to First Baptist Church by the end of the year.
Robeck has been a HOPE Center volunteer for about 11 years. Wiens helped set up the HOPE Center in 1989, when the new nonprofit organization purchased the building from First Baptist Church.
Both have served in a variety of roles as volunteers, directors and board members.
First Baptist constructed and moved to a new building in the 2400 block of Main Street. First Baptist constructed the HOPE Center building in 1944.
“Basically, Lynn and I, we’re tired,” Robeck said. “It’s not an 8-to-5 job.”
Everyone involved is a volunteer, she said, and she estimated she puts in upward of 40 hours per week into the HOPE Center. Wiens works more unpredictable hours and handles things at night.
The work has been rewarding, Robeck said.
“I just really enjoy the people I’ve met. The one person a year that makes a complete turnaround, accepts the Lord, gets a job, gets off drugs, that keeps you going for the next year.”
The HOPE Center is a long-term women’s shelter and transitional housing, offering women longer stays in order to make changes that are lasting in their lives.
Women alone and women with children are given a safe and supportive place to discover and recover God’s plan for their lives. HOPE Center volunteers believe that God created the HOPE Center in order to give women and children the unique opportunity to make long-term life changes.
To that end it offers support through mentoring, friendships, Bible studies and accountability, they say. It also provides information and direction toward agencies able to help with education, job training and other life skills.
Robeck and Wiens decided to start putting the word out in August about their intentions to step down by the end of the year, Robeck said. “Then God gave us somebody else.”
First Baptist Pastor Danny Wyatt serves on the board of the Pregnancy Crisis Center. One of the HOPE Center’s board members also serves on the PCC board. She took the issue of the Hope Center’s future to the PCC board, where Wyatt heard about the plans.
“I’ve been here for five years,” Wyatt said. “And I have been encouraging the church, after getting healthy, let’s get outside the walls of the church and minister in the community.”
The members of the church started praying that God would show them what He wanted them to do, Wyatt said. “He put a real burden in my heart about the homeless, the downtrodden.”
Wyatt and members of First Baptist began taking meals and blankets to the local homeless on Mondays, recognizing that the Sweet Home Emergency Ministries Manna program feeds people on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
“We just try to fill one of those evenings by going where they are,” Wyatt said.
The church started its ministry to the homeless in August, Wyatt said. “Our hearts are breaking for people that are needing some help.”
The church also is involved in the local Food Pak program, which provides backpacks full of food to feed needy students during the weekends.
He heard about the HOPE Center situation at the PCC board’s September meeting, he said. Hearing God in it, he immediately toured the center. He brought a group of people from church to tour it the following week.
God continued to reveal His plans as the church explored the idea, which included a prayer meeting at the HOPE Center, Wyatt said.
Robeck and Wiens are working with volunteers from the church, and they hope everything is in place by Jan. 1, when they plan to end their involvement.
“We are not here to take over,” Wyatt said. “First Baptist Church, if we’re never seen, is OK with me.”
The church welcomes the support of all of the churches who have supported the HOPE Center over the years, Wyatt said, and he is actively seeking volunteers to help out with the program.
The HOPE Center can use volunteers in many roles, for maintenance, help with computers and much more, Robeck said.
The HOPE Center has four residents, Robeck said. It can help up to nine residents, including children. Residents are admitted based on an interview process used to determine if women are ready to make meaningful and lasting changes in their lives; transition from homelessness; and ready to become self-supporting and productive members of society.
“We’ve had a good run,” Robeck said. “It’s time to take a break. My husband will be glad.”
Wyatt and his church are already thinking about ways to expand the program, he said. They have ideas about a teen center and setting up a computer center, where people can learn how to use them, improving their chances of getting jobs.
“We’re just not wanting to feed them fish,” he said. “We want to teach them to fish.”
For information about the HOPE Center or to volunteer, call (541) 367-HOPE or First Baptist at (541) 367-4531.