SPEAKER:Pastor Jeff Cartwright of New Hope Church, and Charmaine Jones, a member of the church, spoke to the club about the New Hope Studio, the church's Help Your Neighbor Exchange, and the church's mission to help those in need and/or struggling with addiction.
Pictured below are Charmaine and Jeff.
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Harvey Smith introduced our speakers, noting that he hired Jeff in about 1993 to come to Otterbein United Methodist Church. "He stayed and married one of the ladies of our congregation," he said. The two men have stayed close friends,
Charmaine said she had been "broken" when she discovered New Hope Church. She was addicted to drugs and alcohol, she said. When she came to New Hope Church, she said she found that despite being broken "we were loved." She read a number of testimonials from other members of the church, who grew up in East Dayton without hope and peace. " I knew of a Savior, but I didn't know Him," Timothy Copeland wrote, New Hope Church member Linda Bingamon wrote about re-finding hope and peace and painting canvasses that "represent just that to me." Charmaine described her own life this way: "I was a broken shanty living all alone in the woods. I really wasn't alone, but I just hadn't discovered that Jesus was traveling with me all along, Ezekiel 37:1-14 talks about how God will raise up from dry bones new life. That's what he did with me: He brought new life from a valley of dry bones," She said she has been free of her addictions for five years now.
Pastor Cartwright said he had gone to seminary but had no idea of becoming a pastor. He had prayed about it, he said, and in 2007 was asked to stay in the Dayton neighborhood and become the pastor of the East Dayton Community Church. There were about 12 people in the program at that time, he said. Now there are 150 people in the worship "in a little bitty church on Xenia Avenue," he said. The church opened the New Hope Studio in Nov., 2014, which grew from an art program started three years ago to help people express themselves and gather hope through art. It offers studio classes three days a week and has sculpture, painting, knitting, craft-making, etc. They hope to create a micro business to help people who live in the neighborhood, Cartwright said.
The church's Help Your Neighbor exchange is not a food exchange, as there is one of those across the street, he said. It is an exchange in which people can get what they need that can't be bought with food stamps, such as hygiene items and household cleaning products. They ask for people to bring in canned goods or something that could be of use by someone in the neighborhood in exchange for such items. This project has been supported through donations from groups like the Centerville Rotary, he said. They see from 40 to 50 people each week. People need such things as diapers, toilet paper, shampoo, etc., he said.
New Hope Church is located at 536 Xenia Ave. It's motto is: Restoring hope one life at a time. It's phone number is 937-253-7551. Worship is at 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sunday mornings at at 5 p.m. Sunday evenings, followed by dinner. New Hope Studio is at 546 Xenia Ave. It is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The Help Your Neighbor Exchange is a community co-op and exchange that is held Sundays from 3:45 to 4:45 p.m.
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