Children’s home nears completion

Organizers for the Adullam Household of Faith expect to be able to start taking children into the home shortly after Jan. 1, 2015, the Rev. Marty Harden of Bethel Pentecostal Church said Monday.
The household of faith will be a home for children of incarcerated women from the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women, who agree to send their children there.
Workers are finishing the sprinkler system for the home, Harden said.
Bethel Pentecostal Church and an organization called Matthew 25 International partnered to construct the dormitory. Matthew 25 International does mission work around the world and also oversees a children’s home in Peru, Harden said.
Volunteers from different groups have provided almost all of the labor on the dormitory with the exception of work required to be performed by licensed contractors, Harden said. “The community has been amazing,” Harden said. People have donated furniture and other items.
Several incarcerated women have contacted Harden about wanting the home to house their children, but organizers are not going to start taking any children until construction is completely finished, Harden said.
Church leaders had previously planned to open the home in the summer of 2014 but experienced some delays that pushed back the opening date, Harden said.
The dormitory is two stories. The upstairs will be a living quarters for Matthew and Kelly Williamson, who will serve as the father and mother figures at the home, and their children. The upstairs portion of the dormitory also has room to house volunteers or interns who come to help at the home, Harden said.
Downstairs includes the living area for the children who come to live at the house with a nursery and infant bedrooms, he said. Workers are finishing the security system that has cameras recording at all times and keeps a record of all footage, Harden said. The fire alarm system is also nearing completion, he said.
The limited access building will require people to have a card to enter, Harden said. Church leaders and home organizers have plans to eventually build more dormitories on Bethel Pentecostal Church’s roughly 11 to 12 acres, Harden said.
The first dorm will serve as the inception dormitory for new residents, Harden said. Harden envisions having a boys’ dorm, a girls’ dorm and an infant toddler dorm, he said. Those buildings are part