By By Adrienne McKenzie
We Care personnel and Atmore Work Center inmates celebrated the completion of the facility’s new chapel on Jan. 17 with a dedication and open house.
We Care vice president Don Metzler said the project started in 2005 and the groundbreaking ceremony was held in June of 2007.
The new chapel at the Atmore Work Center includes many classrooms, a library, an office, two restrooms and an auditorium. Before the chapel was completed, there was a one-room chapel for the inmates to worship in.
We Care Chaplain Ed Ranck led a rope cutting ceremony at the Chapel dedication.
The three aspects included, people who planned and prayed for the project, those who gave monetary donations toward the Chapel and those who did the actual construction work.
Inmates at Atmore Work Center did a majority of the construction work and Dean Miller from Arthur, Ill. was the project manager.
Metzler said after the rope was cut at the ceremony, We Care president David Landis presented the keys of the chapel to Warden Patterson signifying the work was complete.
It is Ranck’s hope that the new chapel will “be a place where men can meet and be with God, that they can learn of Him, but most of all that it will be a place where men can find Jesus Christ as Savior and receive the peace that only He can give.”