Sunday October 5: Faith Family Fellowship Congregation to Celebrate First Service in Restored Iconic Bushkill Township Church Building

This weekend marks the first church service to be held in the red-brick church building located at 1002 Bushkill Center Road in Bushkill Township. The building, its quintessential steeple a landmark in the community for generations, was dedicated in 1873 as the Jehovah Union Church.

Sunday services, which will be held at 10:00 a.m., begin October 5, and the church will hold its grand reopening - to which the community will be invited - on November 23, the Sunday before Thanksgiving.

Nestled on the corner of Bushkill Center and Belfast Roads, catty-cornered from Beck’s Land and Sea House, the church was, until recently, the private residence of Wayne and Bonnie Guerro, who quietly ran a non-profit organization from the former house of worship.

The Guerros put the the building up for sale during an estate sale last fall. The congregation struggled to accrue the down payment for the building, and so the Guerros listed the property publicly until the following June, when they simply gave the church to the congregation.

The Guerros explained that “an anonymous benefactor had come alongside of them” to make this miracle a reality.

According to Hampton, who continues to marvel at the series of events that followed the gift of a permanent home for his congregation, the miracles continue. Friends in the community have donated paint, mulch, and building materials for much-needed renovations. Issues with the small number of parking spaces were resolved through agreements with Beck’s Land and Sea House and Jennings Transportation Corporation.

The grand reopening, scheduled for November 23, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, will be a celebration open to the community, many of whom have shared with Hampton and other church members that they are eager to visit the church when it opens as they have relatives – in some cases generations removed – who were baptized or married there.

To learn more about Bushkill Township’s newest church, visit www.faith-family-fellowship.org.