BRADENTON, Fla. — A Tampa Bay area church is asking for the community’s help to get their ministry’s van back up and running properly.
Small but mighty may be some of the best words to describe Central Christian Church in Bradenton.
“Our church has a big heart and serves the developmental and intellectual disability community, and we only have a small little church, about 40 people, and we pick up around 20 of them every week that live in group homes and assisted living facilities and a few that are on wheelchairs,” said Kenneth Gregson, the church’s pastor.
Now the church is faced with a problem they say they can’t fix on their own after the wheelchair lift on their church van recently broke. Pastor Gregson said it’ll cost a little over $3,000 for the repairs.
“The mobility company who does the lift repairs said all the wiring needs to be replaced. They need to order some parts that actually are going to take six weeks to order," said Gregson. “Since we’re a small, little church of only 40 people, half of which have developmental or intellectual disabilities, we just did not have it in our budget, so we need some help.”
Gregson explained they have some people who haven’t been able to join them because they don’t have access to the lift.
“You miss that. When they’re not in church with you, you miss their cheerful noises, their joy that they bring,” said Brittany Swink, the church’s ministry associate.
As of around 3:00 p.m. Wednesday, the church had raised about 60 percent of their $3,500 goal. For more information, click here.
“I encourage people if you can’t donate to our GoFundMe to do something nice for your community,” said Swink.
