New Life in an Old School

by Ben Tobias, Director of Global Reach

The Kingwood Elementary School provided elementary education for many generations of students near the village of Kingwood, PA, and was a community fixture until its closing in 2010. For an alum like me (Ben Tobias), it was sad to see an empty building that was so full of memories, and I wondered what would become of it. Fast forward to today, and the building is brimming with life again – although not as a school.

I’ve asked leaders at the Kingwood Church of God to share some reflections about what has happened in recent years.

Please share how the Lord led the Kingwood Church of God to take ownership of the Kingwood Elementary School.

About 2011, the KCOG embarked on evaluating the possibility of adding a gym, kitchen, and a couple of classrooms to the church located in Kingwood, PA. Knowing that the former Kingwood Elementary School was for sale, the KCOG toured the school building, but at the time, the group thought the building had too many challenges for us to tackle. The building was soon sold to a land developer who was visiting his hometown near Confluence but lived in the state of Washington. Over the next three years, the KCOG building committee reviewed over 50 sets of plans/options for adding on to the existing church building. Early in 2014, a set of preliminary architectural drawings were made, which included an estimated building cost of around $2.5 million. A congregational meeting was held, and it was approved to begin to raise a portion of the money before proceeding with any aspect of construc. Within the week following the decision to begin raising money, the land developer, who had not been able to turn the building for a profit and knew nothing about the KCOG wanting to expand, offered the building to the KCOG free of charge if we paid the back taxes. The KCOG toured the building again, and while the same challenges existed, they looked much smaller.

What were the biggest challenges?

The whole building! The roof leaked in many places, mold was growing throughout the building, many walls had no insulation, what little insulation originally in the ceiling was poorly installed with no insulation in many places, a mammoth heating system that we were told required 18,000 gallons of propane to keep the building heated, windows that would not seal tightly, etc., etc.

How did God provide in resources and servant leadership?

Servant Leadership: God is the focal point at KCOG and is with us in everything we do, including the work/activities at the Fellowship Center. God provided many different individuals with varying talents from within the KCOG to lead and work with volunteers to complete the many tasks in a timely manner.

Resources: God provided 135 different individuals from the church and community to get the building ready to use. On average, there were 28 people that worked every Thursday and Saturday through the winter of 2014-2015, donating 3,372 documented man-hours. People came from throughout the community to help get the building ready for occupancy, bonding people in Christian love.

Not only does the KCOG congregation have many alumni from the former school, but we are also blessed with former Teachers, Administration, Cafeteria staff, Janitorial staff and Clerical staff all of whom were able to provide important information that helped with the building transformation.

We were trained on the heating system by “field experts” at no charge.

A sales engineer came to Kingwood from Virginia to “go over” the dishwasher that was left in the building to ensure it was working correctly and left us several hundred dollars worth of spare parts, all at no charge.

When specialty parts were needed to make repairs or bring the building to code, they appeared on sites such as eBay and Craigslist and were purchased for a fraction of their value, with large items appearing locally for easy pick up.

Most of the businesses (some in other parts of the country) provided materials at greatly reduced costs once they knew what the materials were being used for.

There were numerous financial donations received from former alumni and teachers not associated with the KCOG, and because of all the volunteer labor and good stewardship of our finances, we were able to open the building debt free.

What are some of the ways the church has used the facility for ministry?

Our Wednesday evening programs for both youth and adults have moved to the facility. While starting as a way to raise funds, the Sunday lunches and dinners cooked at the facility have become a means for the community to come together socially in a Christian atmosphere. We also offer free meals to local shut-ins and retired folks several times a year, providing them a Christian social atmosphere or a quick visit. The Fellowship Center is great for Bible School, and the electronic sign allows Christian-type messages to be seen by all that pass by. The facility is also used by many local groups, reunions, and sports teams, knowing and respecting that the facility is part of the KCOG.

What are your dreams for the future?

Our prayer is that the facility will be used in a way that “plants the seed” of Salvation through Jesus Christ.