Wellspring ‘Adopt-a-Park’ ministry meeting needs

Every Tuesday for the past two months, Wellspring Church in Blytheville has partnered with Convoy of Hope out of Springfield, Mo., in a form of ministering called “Adopt-a-Park” where members of the church go into Williams Park in Blytheville to give out food and other necessities to local people in the community.

Member and minister of Wellspring Church Chris Thomas said, “The idea is to connect with the community and to get people out here and develop relationships.”

Thomas explained how the ministry came about and what all it includes.

“We had a group of about 17 or 18 people go on a mission trip to Los Angeles, Calif. and worked with the Dream Center there and one of the things that the Dream Center did was go out to Skid Row,” said Thomas.

Skid Row is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, Calif. that has one of the largest populations of homeless people in the country.

“Every week they would set up and people would know to come, they would pray with them and talk to them, play with them and then give whatever they could give them. Our members got back from that mission trip and were like ‘you know what, we can do that here,’” said Thomas.

Thomas continued, “We partnered up with Convoy of Hope out of Springfield, Mo., and we go there, pick up pallets of items that we need for the week, sort it out in bags and bring it out here every Tuesday from 3-5 p.m., year-round rain, snow, or sleet.”

Thomas said that there are no requirements to receive the items and that anyone is welcome to get what they need.

“There are no requirements, people can come every week. We always try to have a week’s worth of things for them,” he said.

Thomas also mentioned that since they have started the ministry it has continued to grow each week.

“The first week we had only one show up, the next week about a half a dozen and it just kept growing from then on. They line up and we serve them until we run out,” said Thomas.

Thomas addressed the hopes that Wellspring Church has for “Adopt-a-Park” in the future. “This is God’s work, the idea is to get this established here [at Williams Park] and be able to build up enough resources and then go to another park. Hopefully we can cover the whole town,” said Thomas.