by PAUL RAYNER

After years of planning and a change in anticipated venue, the Family Worship Centre is ready to start services in their new and larger facility.

Sunday, April 22 will be the date for their first worship service in one building of the old Dowd Transport facility on Mountain Street. The finishing touches are currently being done, and according to Pastor Orland Usick, they are happy to be moving in.

“This will be the first service,” Usick stated. “We haven’t had a grand opening, but we made the decision to just start. Everything is good and we’re ready to go.”

The church has been housed in the old McPhail Medical Centre on North Railway Street, and a new facility has been in the plans for a few years. In fact, they had purchased land across the street to build a new place of worship, but changed their minds when the Dowd buildings became available. Although in the works for some time, they did not finalize the purchase until this February. The reasons for the change in plans were mainly due to how well it suited their needs.

“It was an opportunity that gave us what we needed for less money than construction of a new building. There was some cost factor, that we would get more building for less money. We felt the location was good and the size would suit our needs. Everyone was in agreement and we really felt the Lord was leading us in this direction.”

Size challenges were the major reason for trying to find a new space. The old centre presented about 1000 square feet of useable space, which made services tight at the 50-60 level of parishioners. The area in the one building they are using is 50 ft. by 80 ft., which they are hoping will seat 120 people comfortably.

“We have 3,000 more square feet to play with,” Usick said.

A fair bit of work was needed to prepare the building for its new role. Usick said most of it was done by volunteers.

“It was a huge job, but between the ladies painting and the men doing the construction and drywall, we had a lot of volunteer help. It was a lot of work but we got the job done.”

As well as the basic area for services, they built a second floor area for kids. At present, they are renting out the second building.

Usick said the new building gives the opportunity to do more than was possible before.

“Right now, we have basically built a multi-use facility,” he explained. “It won’t look like a traditional church, but we wanted to keep in mind it would be place we could do a ministry out of.”

One of the new concepts planned for the area is a larger summer kids program. He said there is plenty of room to accommodate a five-day a week day camp for the two summer months. He said it would be a place for people in Boissevain, including those with seasonal employment, to drop the kids off for the day, for a special program they can get a lot out of.

“We can provide a day camp experience for kids, which would run Monday to Friday, and the parents can pick them up at 5 o’clock. There is no reason we can’t do this. This is one of the things we can do now, the building is designed for these things.”

Usick said the old building has been sold to the Cherry Creek Metis chapter and the other land is currently up for sale.

The need for a new facility was there, and the people involved in the Family Worship Centre responded.

“This is a real benchmark,” Usick stated. “After quite a few years of working, we have the new facility the people wanted and needed. More and more people are finding faith. A lot of people worked very hard to come to this place. I am so thankful for the people who rallied to this, who worked so hard and caught the vision. They realized that church is more than Sunday mornings.”

“We as a church now can dream really big and see what the Lord has in store for us in the future.”