By By Kerry Whipple Bean
publisher
God has been working through the clients at New Beginnings Ministry, director Bo Bell told supporters Saturday at a fish fry to help benefit the nine-month-old center.
New Beginnings — a faith-based drug and alcohol treatment center located off Pea Ridge Road — held the fundraiser, complete with a cake auction, to help celebrate the facility’s new dorm, built on site mainly by the men who have sought help from the ministry.
The Faith Dorm is ready for new tenants, who will sleep in bunk beds in one large room at the end of the dorm, which also has a classroom, kitchen and bathroom.
Bell said the facility still needs some plumbing work, as well as some other minor furnishings to make it complete.
Bell, a native of Escambia County, is himself a recovering addict who was able to “break the chains of addiction” after following a path laid by God, he said. He said the four treatment centers he visited were not what helped — it was a relationship with God in a faith-based facility like New Beginnings.
Bell started a similar treatment facility in Florida but moved to his home county last year.
Saturday’s event raised funds with donations and the auction of dozens of cakes as well as some birdhouses and planters made by clients of New Beginnings.
New Beginnings needs items such as twin sheet sets, towels and wash cloths, commercial sized cookware, pillows, framed Christian art, paper products, coffee cups, trash bags and an easel for the classroom.
Anyone interested in donating or helping the ministry can call 251-623-1030 or 251-238-7999.