HAMPDEN – True Life Fellowship Ministries, an independent Pentecostal church renting space from the Eastern Star Grange on Emerson Mill Road, is celebrating its official one-year anniversary in Hampden. True Life Fellowship blends modern worship with the solid base of the Word of God, said Clarence Merchant, a Hampden native who serves as pastor of the church. Worship is at 11 a.m. Sundays.

Merchant graduated from Hampden Academy in 1994 and from Grace Bible College in 1998. He traveled to Third World countries, ministering to people in Mexico and Brazil.

Merchant has been the senior director of food pantries, a soup kitchen and a thrift store, and is the senior director of Oasis Food Project in Hampden and Swanville. Oasis Food Project provides food, housing and fuel assistance to those in need. The Money for Life pledge fund-raiser, working with other churches in Hampden, will benefit those who need help to pay for heating or fuel and rent.

Merchant also is the director of the Advantage program, which works with several local agencies to teach food preparation, budgeting, daily living skills and which addresses other social service issues.

Recently, the church established the nondenominational True Life Christian Academy, which teaches students the fundamentals of studying and ministers to youth spiritually.

True Life Fellowship offers the Triple L Club to teenagers, where members are taught about loving, living and learning. The group has 15 members who meet Friday evenings to play games, study the Bible and do craft projects. Members are given the opportunity to earn badges.

“We believe in True Life,” Merchant said. “We meet people where they are at in life and minister to them in whatever way we can without them feeling humiliated or cast down. True Life Fellowship wants to see people in Hampden and nearby townspeople walk away with dignity and respect as we extend a hand to the community that we love and desire to minister to.”

Merchant said that the church hopes to build a church of its own, which will house its inner church ministries and the True Life Christian Academy. His goal, Merchant said, is to see churches of different faiths come to a common ground for the purpose of reaching the community with solid faith, offering dignity and respect to all.