By Michael Morton
Thus officially began a three-year, $100,000 capital improvement campaign for the 250-member red brick church at 92-10 217th St. Improvements will include a lit sign to replace the old non-electric one at the digging spot, a new boiler and roof, and a fenced-in area where children can play.”We just want people to know we're here, that they can come here for some relief and community resources,” congregant Juliet Lewis, an employee at Mary Immaculate Hospital in Jamaica, said after the three diggers had finished. So far the church has collected several thousand dollars through a summer festival and is currently asking families and corporations to pay to have their names etched onto bricks, which will then be placed at the base of the new sign. Money will also be raised through a community phone pledge drive and by selling advertising space in a program for a celebration of Wuertele's fifth year at the church. The new sign is needed, congregants said, to make the church easier to find at night for newcomers to the neighborhood, while the play area will finally give kids at the church a safe outdoor space. The roof and the boiler need to be replaced because of normal wear and tear at the building, which has served as a community center since its inception more than 80 years ago and often hosts multiple groups meeting on any given night. The church now is home to Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops, a neighborhood choir, three different sessions of Alcoholics Anonymous, a city-funded nursery school for universal pre-K, the 100-member Korean Hope Evangelical Church, a card-playing club for seniors, the board of the Queens Village Civic Association, and the registration and manager meetings for the Hollis Bellaire Little League. “Whatever the community needs are,” Wuertele said, though she added that the church did not push its beliefs on any of those using the facility, preferring to lead by example. “Jesus welcomed everyone,” Wuertele said. “It's all in the way we act-we try to provide hospitality and support in whatever ways we can. It's our job to share God's love.” That philosophy, she said, has made Hindu and Muslim spouses of Christian congregants comfortable attending services as a family and has helped the church reach out to an expanding neighborhood immigrant community. More than nine languages other than English are spoken by church members, while many of the churchgoers who grew up attending services have remained in the neighborhood and now require care as elderly residents. “It's always been a place where the community gathered,” Wuertele said of the church. “As the community changes, we're trying to change the ways in which we reach out.” The church has recently begun taking communion to homebound seniors and working with City University of New York Law School in Flushing to provide legal seminars for immigrants and the elderly on issues such as housing. Other services may be added as required. “We're looking to discover what those needs are,” she said. “That's what we believe Jesus told us to do.” There has also been talk of expanding the church building upwards, an idea that was set aside when the Great Depression hit and has not yet been resurrected. “We trust God will show us what to do,” the pastor said. Reach reporter Michael Morton by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by calling 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
