Submitted photos The new Rivers of Living Water Ministries church building currently being built is designed to comfortably hold 400 worshippers.

Construction on the new church building began in September. Officials are hopeful that the work will be complete by this fall.

ELKINS — Many local drivers may have wondered about the very large structure being built on a hill

just above the UPS Customer Center, off the Beverly Five-Lane.

When finished, the building will be the new home of the Rivers of Living Water Ministries.

“It will be able to hold, very comfortably, just over 400 people. If we have a situation where we have a special event, we can put 500-plus in there,” the church’s pastor, Mike Boggs, told The Inter-Mountain this week.

The Rivers of Living Water Ministries has been located at 503 Lincoln Avenue in Elkins since 2007, but Boggs said members have been dreaming about building a new church ever since the ministry began, in 2006.

“We were a church plant, and actually we started with four people in my dining room. Just praying about it and seeking direction. We just felt like that was the direction that God wanted us to go. So we took a step of faith and started,” Boggs said.

“Within one week, we found a place where we could rent. That’s where Roy’s RV is now, up on the hill. That’s where we rented for about a year, and got our church really going there.

“But it was always in our heart to build something of our own, from the inception. We had something that we really felt would be a great blessing to the community. Those ideas actually began when we started our church plant. We’ve been thinking about this and making plans for close to 20 years.”

After years of yearning, the members’ dream finally began to become a reality.

“We purchased the property about five years ago,” Boggs said. “It kind of just fell into place. We were looking at several places, and one Sunday one of our church members came in and said, ‘Hey, I know where 11 acres are for sale.’ So we talked to the gentleman who owned it, and it all fell into place.”

Construction on the new church began last September, with Lee Reger Builds of Shinnston serving as the contractor.

“Optimistically, we hope to finish construction this coming September to October,” Boggs said. “Once the outside shell is completely done, we plan on going on with a multi-faceted approach to get the interior done. But one of the things I’ve learned about Randolph County since I moved here, the weather can change at any moment. So as with any type of construction, it’s ‘weather permitting.’ We need a good summer.”

Boggs said the new church building will become a “campus” dedicated to helping local youth.

“One of the main reasons that we’re doing what we’re doing is, I’ve always been actively involved with helping youth,” he said. “I coached youth sports for about 14 years, including at the high school football level, and one of the things that my wife and I have noticed is that, young people are growing up in a very difficult culture. A lot of them are hurting, a lot of them are broken.

“It just seemed to us that so many of them are growing up without a purpose. They just feel like they have no direction. We really want to build a campus that is very youth-friendly, youth-inviting, and try to create an atmosphere where, if they need some direction, we can help them get life started off very well.

“My wife is a substitute school teacher. My daughter, Abigail, graduated from Fairmont State with a degree in teaching. She taught for a couple of years at the elementary school level, before she came onboard as a full-time youth minister. We’ve just seen that there’s a great need to help young people. Once we get into the new facility, it’s going to kind of be ‘all hands on deck’ reaching out to young people.”

Abigail Lanham was a special ed teacher at George Ward Elementary, a job she loved, and is now devoted to being the church’s youth minister.

“What I do every week is plan the lessons, plan the games, work with the kids ministry, helping choose the songs, and also working on social media,” she said. “Also, I still go back and volunteer in the school that I worked at.

“Being in the public school system, I’ve seen that there’s a lot of hurt, and a lot of needs that aren’t getting met. How can we help? What can we do to be helping the kids? Let’s give them a place to go. A safe place.”

The pastor added, “What were once inner-city problems have now made it to small towns. Our young people are facing a barrage of challenges that most people in small town America never thought would get here.”

Boggs served as a coach for Upward Bound and YMCA basketball in Randolph County, and also spent three seasons as assistant head football coach at Tygarts Valley High School.

“We took a couple teams to the playoffs, and that was a lot of fun,” he said.

“I came to Randolph County as a forester for Westvaco Corporation, starting in 1995. I never dreamed at all that I would be called to minister. I could not believe that my life changed in that dramatic of a fashion, but it did. And I have no regrets. And, with the construction and all our plans, I’m very hopeful for the future.”