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A Few Clouds Church plans a Family Life Center
St. Paul’s AME is seeking $625,000 to service the community through a new building
It’s 10:30 a.m. on a Wednesday, and St. Paul’s AME Church, tucked away on Pershing Boulevard, just off Woodfield Road, is already teeming with activity. There are no services today, but there is a small army of men and women in the basement of the church, readying meals, doing paperwork and making preparations for the various ministries they serve.
Next door, meanwhile, a bigger project awaits. That would be the Rev. Elliot J. Hobbs Family Life Center, a two-story, 6,500-square-foot building named in honor of the church’s previous pastor, who died of liver cancer in 2012. His widow, the Rev. Eleanor Dixson-Hobbs, is its current pastor, and is looking to raise $625,000 to complete the center and start its programs. Construction began in 2013, a year after Elliot Hobbs’s death. It was his vision to build a center to serve the community.
Still reeling from the nine murders at their sister church in Charleston, S.C., Emanuel AME, the church on this particular day has visitors from the Department of Homeland Security, checking the building for safety. The team will eventually create a game plan for making its two buildings, which will ultimately be joined as one, more secure.
In the meantime, however, there are people to feed and programs to run, and most of the volunteers’ focus is on preparations for today’s lunch. “Any child who comes in and wants a free lunch, we will make it available to them from 11 to 1 p.m. during the entire months of July and August,” Dixson-Hobbs explained. “They’re getting a nice meal: a sandwich, juice box or milk, fruit cup and lots of love.”
The program kicked off July 6, when 15 people showed up for lunch. The next day, the crowd doubled to 30 — so word was obviously getting out. “We feel that this is the mission of the church,” Dixson-Hobbs said. “This is what we ought to be doing, helping people who are in need in the community.”
In addition to the lunch program, the church offers nonperishable groceries to those who need them on the fourth Saturday of every month. Both programs are done in conjunction with Island Harvest.
The church also runs a Sunday school program each week for adults and children. “We just want to be a blessing to the communities we serve,” Dixson-Hobbs said.
