Since mid-August, the Village Commons has had a new addition: the Emmaus Center, a Christian-centered organization.

The center offers services to students and the community, such as weekly Bible study groups on Monday nights and Saturday evenings, Sunday morning worship services and free counseling.

Pastor Dan Stovall said the center is open to everyone, not only those interested in Christianity and Bible studies.

“We are open on a regular daily basis and students are welcome to use the center as a gathering place for conversation without interference,” Stovall said.

The Emmaus Center also has free wireless Internet, and ping-pong and foosball tables.

“Students can even come in and study,” said semester missionary Doug Soukup.

Some NIU students have already taken advantage of the center and its facilities. Ashley Brosky, freshman family and child studies major, spends time at the Emmaus Center to do her homework.

“It’s a quiet place for me to work,” Brosky said. “It’s not all about religious studies.”

The center is overseen by Dr. Mark Inman and his wife Alice. Stovall said he, Inman and other religious leaders wanted to establish a faith-based organization that could meet the spiritual and physical needs of students. Everyone involved in the center is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, the No. 3 disaster relief organization in the world.

“After [the events of] Feb. 14, we decided we were not as effective as we wanted to be when it came to helping students,” Stovall said, because they were not located on campus and not associated with the students.

“We are working toward being recognized as a student organization,” Stovall said.

The center also focuses on meeting the needs of international students. Twice a year, it gives away free furniture to students from othwer countries who have none. It is also planning on providing winter coats when the weather calls for it.

Another service provided by the center is free counseling.

“Students from any faith with any problem can come talk to our counselor,” Stovall said.

Students can walk in and meet with someone on premises, or there is always someone on call to meet their needs and listen, Stovall said.

He said he would like to extend an invitation to all students to come investigate the campus ministry.

“We would like everyone to come in and enjoy,” Stovall said.