MEXICO – The aromas of doughnuts and muffins, hot soups and cheesecake waft through the area’s newest bookstore, gift shop and cafe.

Christine Gerrish, a Mexico High School graduate who returned to the area more than 20 years ago, has opened The Master’s Plan Bookstore and Coffee House on Main Street.

The bookstore includes Christian books, Bibles, music and videos, Maine-made crafts, greeting cards, as well as Maine books, children’s and used books. She also can order titles.

“We’re trying to buy from local artisans and trying to support the community,” Gerrish said.

She said she hopes to establish Bible studies, family nights, and children’s story times.

She is also using her business as a way to reach out to people. After serving as a missionary in Chile in the early 1990s, she realized how blessed, and possibly spoiled, Americans are.

“The Lord gave me this as a dream, as an outreach after coming back from Chile,” she said. It took years, but she has established the business.

She also has hopes, in her five-year plan, to make the second floor of the building into a place for Christian counseling, and the third floor as the site of a Christian radio station.

For now, Gerrish is ready to start a series of scrapbooking workshops. The store will sell materials for the hobby.

She is assisted at the store by several volunteers.

Gerrish and her husband, Jay, owner of a trucking company, are the parents of six children.

She is leasing the building from Dan Sirois, a high school classmate, who had operated the Mill View Bookstore at the site.

The store and cafe are open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Gerrish may be reached by calling 364-9001.