Community Open House Coming

RAINBOW: This Saturday, November 15, community members are invited to a Ribbon Cutting at 11 am (with an Open House until 1 pm) at 54771 McKenzie Hwy. Refreshments and guided tours will be provided as the Living Water Family Fellowship (LWFF) shares their new refurbished gathering space.

The building, which formerly housed the Orchid Health Clinic, has been renovated and retrofitted to serve the church while they pursue designs on their eight-acre parcel located at Milepost 42.

LWFF will hold its first worship gathering the next day at 10 am at the new location.

But before the relaunch, the congregation wants to share their new home and thank the community for their involvement.

Their previous building was destroyed in the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire, along with so many other homes and businesses. With that loss, church members realized their community’s needs had dramatically changed. They didn’t just want to restore what was lost – they wanted to help “Bring it Forward.”

Out of this realization bloomed a new venture called The RIVER (Regional and Intercommunity Venues for Economic Renewal). The 501(c)(3) public benefit nonprofit aims to both build and operate a state-of-the-art destination event venue – located on the front four acres of the donated LWFF property.

Although the church helped form the non-profit, The RIVER now operates as a separate entity with its own board of directors and will eventually have its own building.

Down the road the RIVER’s goal is to bolster the area’s economy by “developing local business partnerships, generating local jobs, and bringing more revenue into the area,” said LWFF’s Pastor Doug Fairrington. It is an undertaking that will likely be years in the making, he says.

Soon after the fire, LWFF installed a modular building on the church property for community use, local gatherings, and services. While the modular had been “a community provision well served,” the imminent construction of new buildings on that site meant it was no longer “good stewardship” to keep it there, he said.

“We’re not attached to buildings,” said Fairrington. “The church is the people, not the building.”

Meanwhile, another creative solution was forged. Thanks to donations and community efforts, LWFF has redesigned the former Orchid Health Clinic site and will be hosting gatherings there while plans take shape on the original property.

The building has “a lot of good memories over the years” for locals, dating back to when it was the home to the Rustic Skillet restaurant, including the Fairringtons. “Cheri and I ate breakfast there after church on our very first Sunday here over 11 years ago,” Doug recalls.