The "labor of love" is over to establish the facility. Now the love and labor can emanate from the facility.

About 75 people gathered March 7 to formally dedicate the Legion Ministry Center at 320 Reynolds Road in Barnwell.

The refurbished center will now be used as the location for the Barnwell Presbyterian Church soup kitchen three days a week, said the church's pastor, the Rev. David Turner.

The church has been running a soup kitchen ministry for about five years to feed the area hungry, said Angie Boyles, a church member and former church elder.

Boyles was one of the first church members who envisioned a separate facility for their soup kitchen ministry.

Although Barnwell Presbyterian Church owns the building, the center is a resource for other area churches to use for good purposes, she said.

The Axis 1 Center of Barnwell will use the center's shower facilities if they have any homeless people that need to take a bath. Also the Greater Edisto chapter of the American Red Cross can use it as a possible evacuation shelter, Boyles said.

"It can be used for a lot of different purposes," Boyles said.

The center has a commercial grade kitchen with freezers, dishwasher and convention oven to cook and serve a good crowd.

Turner said plans are developing for a men's breakfast and Hispanic ministry to meet here as well.

"We hope some civic clubs will use it," he said.

The center was the old American Legion hut for Post 46. When the veterans weren't meeting there, the Legion chapter would rent it out for private parties and other events.

However, within the last few years before Post 46 relinquished ownership of the hut, some parties became problems for the Barnwell Police Department with too many people at the hut for its capacity and alcohol. The Legion post also had no way to discern the renters' true intent for the facility. Also the Legion post had to rent the hut to make payments on the building and repairs as needed.

"The American Legion owed money on the building and had problems with it. The American Legion members got together and agreed to sign over the building and donate it to the church," said church elder Dan Packer. "Then the renovations began and it was not pretty."

Packer showed the crowd a slideshow a few of the more than 400 photos that were taken over 16 months as volunteers and church members helped transform the hut into the Legion Ministry Center.

Among the help was a youth group from a James Island Presbyterian church that made working on the Legion Ministry Center its mission project last summer, Packer said.

"This has been a labor of love because for 16 months of work, there were no complaints. This was a work we knew that was of the Lord. This center is here because there are needs," Turner said.

During the dedication service, Turner said he hopes all who serve others here will do so out of a love for the Lord and their neighbors for the center to have meaningful purpose.

"There are people in this county who are living in their cars. There will be a time when people are naked and will be clothed. We place this center in the hands of the Lord," he said.