Calvary Chapel Farmville has started a new ministry offering hope to people in the area who are struggling with addiction.

The ministry, called “Hope – Farmville,” involves a weekly Bible study that meets every Monday at 7 p.m. at the church, which is located at 302 Industrial Park Road.

Calvary Chapel Farmville’s head pastor Marv Fisher said the new ministry is being led by Nick Sylva.

Sylva explained that his own life used to be one dominated by addiction to drugs, specifically crank, which is a methamphetamine. But then he said someone came, opened up the Bible and shared with him the salvation found in Christ, and God drew him out of that life controlled by addiction.

What helped lead to the formation of “Hope – Farmville” was a trip to Philadelphia that included Pastor Fisher, Sylva said.

“We were at a pastor’s conference a year ago, and he met some of the guys that are leading an addictions ministry in Philadelphia, where hundreds of people die in the streets every year because of addictions,” Sylva said. “You don’t hear about it like you do gun violence and all these other things, not that those aren’t important.”

He said Fisher came back and the possibility of an addictions ministry was discussed, but Sylva indicated they did not want to rush haphazardly into something without it being of the Lord.

“So we prayed about it,” he said, and the people involved in the Philadelphia ministry invited them back. “They showed us around, they showed us how they do it, they showed us the needs, and it broke our hearts. They have hundreds of people in their fellowship recovering and stumbling and things that go with addiction. It was a silent trip back, it was pretty quiet. But still, we didn’t want to jump into it. We wanted to make sure the Lord was behind it. And so we gave it some more time. We kept praying. And there’s ways that the Lord reveals to you when He’s pulling you or calling you in a certain direction.”

As time passed, Sylva said he was consistently seeing examples of addiction here in the area.

“You just start seeing the need,” he said.

So Sylva and his wife, Darlene, have begun their effort to meet that need through the addictions-focused Bible study.

“It’s my wife and I, and we have a crew of people from our church,” he said. “I can’t stress enough how integral they are as to this thing kicking off. It’s like four or five of us.”

He said the premise of the new ministry is that there is power in the Bible, the word of God.

“The bottom line is I feel like God’s word, it’s His revelation of Him to us,” he said. “And we’re going to start out as (saying), ‘Hey, this is what God did for us. He loves us. … He doesn’t want anybody to die in this way or whatever, in this power (of addiction).’ His word will address every issue throughout our entire life. It’s like you can read a passage one year and then read it three years later, and it’ll jump out to you, it’ll speak to you in a totally different way than it did the first time. You’re like, ‘Did I even read this before?’ So, I believe it’s a living word, and in that, I don’t know how He does it, but I know He does it.”

Sylva said the Bible study will pertain to the full spectrum of addiction, not just one kind.

“Cigarettes, coke, crank, heroine, pot and anything that you’re addicted to,” he said. “And this is what I determine addiction (to be) — if you have to hide it, if you’re ashamed of it, if you do it behind closed doors and you don’t want your aunt and uncle to know about it, let’s just call it what it is. Maybe that’s a sin, and the Bible’s packed with ways to deal with sin.”

He emphasized that the ministry is not a police program but is about presenting God’s love to people.

“This might grow into something that we can’t even imagine,” he said.