Pat Jobe
Tuesday, December 30, 2025 12:00 pm
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When the new community resources center opens in Henrietta it will be the fruit of a vision. Revs. Travis and Rochelle McEntyre, who have served around the world, are putting their love for service into Henrietta. And they are doing it in the name of Jesus.
The $1.7 million, 6,000-square-foot center will offer a variety of services including food and emergency housing, but at its heart will be the message that all of God's children deserve dignity and love. The long-term plan is for it to include medical and dental services. Grants and private donations are being sought.
"That's what Christ said we should do," Travis said during an interview with him and his wife, Rochelle. "I've been in ministry in Rutherford County for more than 20 years, and people need to understand they are loved by God." Sometimes that means recovery from addiction. Sometimes it means finding something to eat, a sandwich or a box of surplus food.
Information on giving can be found at foothillstransitionalservices.org or PO Box 849, Forest City, 28043.
McEntyre was born in Forest City and has spent his career in service, both to the United State Navy and several local churches. He is currently the pastor of Harvest House Baptist Church in Henrietta. Pastor Rochelle serves the Cornish Memorial A.M.E Zion Church in Key West and the St. James A.M.E Zion in Kissimmee, both in Florida. Both pastors preach at and serve at all three congregations plus the broader communities in all three locations.
Among the populations they serve are the homeless, the addicted, those who are financially and spiritually stressed.
The new resource center will, in Travis's words, "Give people a safe place to start over again. They're not bad people. They're God's people who have made bad choices. They need to understand they are loved. The Bible says love covers a multitude of sins." It has the power to heal.
Pastor Rochelle describes herself as "a nurse for 25 years and a minister to mind, body and soul."
All congregations come out of a 2,000-year-old history of medical and other forms of physical care as well as spiritual and intellectual care. Congregations throughout that time have built centers like the one planned for Henrietta. Hospitals, shelters, clinics all have a long history in church life.
People in the congregation at Harvest House are solidly behind the new center. "On a scale of one to ten, they are at 25," Pastor Travis said with a smile.
Pastor Rochelle felt the call to preach at 12-years-old. She first spoke at Unity A.M.E. Zion in Fort Mill, S.C. where she talked about "all power is in His hands." She said at such a young age, so innocent, it was easy to be a conduit for the word of God. "The words just flowed," she said.
Both pastors have traveled widely sharing the word. Travis, through the U.S. Navy and across the country, has done hurricane relief, first as a Navy reservist and later as a pastor. Both travel widely preaching and calling believers to servant ministry.
"I've always had a burden for people hurting. I've always had compassion," he said.
Rochelle nodded and agreed and recalled a young homeless man her congregation found in Key West. "He could play the piano like Mozart and eventually became our church musician. When his parents learned he had recovered and was playing for us, they came down from Pennsylvania and heard him and were amazed." He later returned home with his parents. The family was reunited.
The huge project has huge support.
Pastor April Brown, who serves at Harvest House, even after a recent move to Rock Hill, said, "I tried other churches, but not many are in ministry to the whole community the way we are at Harvest House." Despite the drive, she is staying with Harvest House.
She also said of the new resource center, "I am overwhelmed with joy that the Lord has put this vision on Pastor Travis and Pastor Rochelle. It is important to them and to our church that we minister to the whole community. We do feed people who are hungry (Travis said about 180 are fed each week) and we provide clothes to people who need them, but we know how important it is to minister to people spiritually, too."
She gave a strong shout out to the marriage between the two ministers. "Thanks be to God they are walking in one accord."
People who have heard all three of these ministers preach say that they are truly filled with the Spirit.
"I'm excited about it. Travis McEntyre's my spiritual leader," Darletha Simmons, who has known Travis for 20 years, said of both Travis's ministry and the new center. "There's hurting people down there and it's gonna help them," she added.
No devout Christian, especially not one who has answered the call to ministry, comes lightly or without some clear signs of the presence of the Spirit. For Travis McEntyre a brush with death came at 16. He was playing baseball and fell in the dugout. He struck against a water fountain and crushed his jaw requiring reconstructive surgery.
One doctor who saw him shortly after the accident said, "I wouldn't give a penny for his life. He may or may not survive the night." The lower part of his jaw and face had to be completely rebuilt.
Years later, during service in the Navy, he fell into an elevator shaft, an accident that was another brush with death.
He believes in both cases he was saved for ministry.
During his ordination process, one of his mentors said, "You won't go a Sunday without preaching."
Like his wife's experience as a 12-year-old girl, the presence of the Spirit has always been clear and calling.
The center will serve food, personal hygiene items, clothing, a commercial coffee house, community events, recovery classes and classes on other subjects, showers, laundry services and emergency shelter.
Pastor Travis said it will no longer be necessary for homeless people to wash in the river.
Donations are appreciated.