Radiant spreads goodwill

Angela Flower received some urgent care Tuesday, and it came in a box.

Radiant Church opened an Economic Relief Center this week at its Reems Road/Paradise Lane campus that will supply low-income seniors and families facing tough economic times with an "economic urgent care" package.

For Flower, that came in the form of a food box.

"It will help tremendously," the Surprise woman said. "My husband receives his Social Security disability check and that barely pays the bills, and there's no money left over."

The Surprise church's congregration opened the Economic Relief Center Tuesday.

"With the economic crisis right now, we see that there's a real need in the community, so we wanted to help," said Kristina Harbour, director of the compassions program at Radiant. "We envision this as an economic urgent care."

Harbour said they had the idea for the relief center three weeks ago.

"Everyone is hurting right now with the stock market going down and people losing their jobs," she said.

That's when Harbour and Radiant staff decided to start the program. They had already received some requests for food and given some away through a smaller food pantry, which is at the church in a smaller room.

But the Economic Relief Center is much larger. They've rented three mobile storage facilities for any of the items donated.

Radiant Church Pastor Lee McFarland said they want to help as much as possible.

"Jesus cared a lot about the poor and when you help the poor you're touching the heart of God," he said. "There have been so many people coming through our doors looking for help, why not help them right here instead of referring them elsewhere."

Many of the items for the relief center have been donated by residents and congregation members.

One person, Harbour said, recently gave the church a check for $8,000 to buy the necessary food and other materials for the program.

The church has partnered with Target, Fastsigns, Surprise, Great Smiles Dental and Luke Air Force Base.

Even though the relief center begins this week, Harbour said they're here to help as the local food bank donations dwindle.

But the church will offer extra assistance.

"We'll have applications to help with some utility bills, give gas cards to people who need it to job hunt and other items like that," Harbour said.

Anyone can apply for the program, whether they're in the congregation or live in the community.

"We're not singling anyone out at all because a lot of people need these boxes," Harbour said.

When many of the congregation members heard about the program, they jumped at the opportunity to volunteer with the project.

More than 400 people are signed up.

Dawn Bowman and her husband, Jeff, of Surprise, who are members of Radiant, said they couldn't resist the opportunity to volunteer.

"It's absolutely wonderful and touching that the church wants to reach out like this and more churches should do the same," Bowman said.

Mitchell Vantrease can be reached at 623-876-2526 or mvantrease@yourwestvalley.com.