NORWICH – The Agape Baptist Church located in Norwich has joined together with The Place and other various local community groups in an effort of improvement in the community.
“We wanted to develop the property we have, we're trying to create a place where people can come and focus on their families pursue a relationship with God and with each other.” said Agape Baptist church Pastor John Jablonski.
Recently, The Agape Baptist Church paired with two youth groups based out of The Place. The Headwaters Youth program and the Summer Youth and Training program have donated their time to help shape the land surrounding the Agape Baptist Church as well as the church itself into an area more usable by the public.
“The church started about three years ago and it was on the decline, a lot of what we’ve been doing is trying to fix the place up so we can reach our community and to reach more people in the community with the a message of hope,” said Jablonski.
The Headwater Youth program, through donations and fundraising done by The Place, was able to volunteer a group of six youths to go to the church grounds on July 10th in order to use their time for the day to help clear and mulch a quarter mile nature path surrounding the property.
“Through our annual cocktail fundraiser project we were able to sponsor some projects for places like the Agape Baptist Church, who may not have been able to afford them otherwise,” said Marjorie Grap, Director of the Youth and Service Program.
The Summer Youth program also volunteered their time over a span of three weeks in the month of July, to help the church and community as they helped to further develop the property into a workable community site. The site supervisor of these renovations with the Summer Youth Program was Bill Wetz.
Various other groups including the Lakeshore Baptist Church, The Children’s Evangelism Fellowship and Mehootani Baptist Church are scheduled to help in August with further renovations.
“The church is for the community, we wanted to include groups from the area. My heart and thanks goes out to youth and everyone who have helped us this far. I actually came up through the Summer Youth Program, as it was my first job. I came from a broken family so without them I wouldn’t have the skills I have now, they taught me how to get a job and be successful,” said Jablonski.
Jablonski stated that these renovations were not a one-time thing as he called this summers work, “a great start to phase one of what we want to accomplish.”
“Next year we want them or anyone else in the community to come back and help to keep building the trails, and in the future we want to be looking at Gazebos so we can eventually hold community events, music and have many events here so we can give back to the community,” said Jablonski.
The Agape Baptist Church will be continuing with their renovations throughout the remainder of the summer. The church will also be holding a vacation Bible school from August 17-21, all are invited to attend.
The Agape Baptist Church can be found at 211 St. Highway 320 in Norwich and can be found on their website at www.abcnorwich.com.
“Our goal is to spread our message while hopefully having a lot of outdoor events in the near future, so we can truly give back to our community,” said Jablonski.