Inner Touch Ministries opens
By Caitlyn Kelleher JOURNAL REPORTER

Deb Farley, of Ashburnham, has opened a ministry in Westminster and plans to open a Bible school at the Route 2A location, as well. JOURNAL PHOTO/CAITLYN KELLEHER

Deb Farley is working to formally open her ministry in Westminster and prepares to open a Bible school in January.

Inner Touch Ministries, which is located on Route 2A across from Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School, has opened its doors for services on Sunday mornings and Discipleship Evangelism Groups on Thursday evenings.

"I felt like God was telling me to open up my own ministry," said Farley, who has transformed a former storefront into a ministry center and high-tech classroom.

She said she wanted the school to be in a "neutral place where people can come and learn," without the intimidation of a church setting.

She said God was telling her, "I want you to train my people in what I have trained you in."

She study under the director of Andrew Wommack and his Bible school, Charis Bible College, where she took a year of classes online and then moved to Colorado for the second year of classes.

"I found that peace," she said. "It was life changing for both of us. … I was seeing how much God really lived in all of us."

"[Wommack]'s the founder of it," she said. "He has extension schools."

And the Westminster location will be the first one in the New England area.

Farley's husband had joined her in Colorado and telecommuted to Tyco.

Farley, a mother of two grown children, has lived in Ashburnham for the last 25 years and used to own and operate a hair salon in the center of that town. Her husband, Bob, works at Tyco.

"My husband and I were saved almost 25 years ago," she said. "And I spent 19 years wondering who I was. … I wanted to find out who God was and who I was in that."

The couple used to worship at High Ground Ministry in Westminster and Farley said she "walked the Christian walk."

"But I was never settled within my heart," said the newly ordained minister.

Now she feels settled as the doors to the ministry open informally a year ago and formally at the beginning of November. She now is ready to open the school.

"I think this Bible school is a unique Bible School because it's teaching student who they are in God and how God sees them."

The Bible School will open with an introduction and registration on Friday, Jan. 11, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Jan. 12, at 10 a.m., and the first semester starts on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2008.

It will offer full time classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and part-time class on Monday and Wednesday evenings.

The school will be the same material that Farley studied during her first year working with Charis Bible School.

Wommack can be seen on television preaching the Gospel Truth programs

"It's going to be a school," she said. "It's a commitment. It teaches character and it teaches maturity."

Farley said the school is open to people of any religion.

"It's not just for born-again Christians," she said.