Centre County church set to open in new building

BELLEFONTE, Pa. (WTAJ) — After a year of construction the Greater Buffalo Run Valley United Methodist Church has a new place to call home.

The church located in Bellefonte has been under construction and now on Sunday, April 21, the church will hold their grand opening with their first church service at 9:45 a.m.

“It’s huge for the community. The original three churches had combined into one and they realized that not only did they not have enough room, but we need to be able to minister and provide access to our aging congregation,” Pastor James Jacob said.

The previous church caused problems with many members including not having a ramp for older and disabled members. Now the church includes handicapped parking as well as being completely ADA accessible. The space will also provide for the growing congregation.

“We’re growing, and the reason we’re growing is because we’re able to minister to not only the families, but some of the aging congregation. And we are growing leaps and bounds. And it’s mostly because of the programs that we provide primarily to our youth group and to the families,” Jacobs said.

One member who has been there since the beginning of construction is Willis Houser. He was part of the new building committee.

“It’s really great to see it be coming to a close. That we are going to be able to move in and use the facility that we spent the last year trying to build. Going through all the hardships of what had to be done and things that needed to be put together and working with the contractor to come out as beautiful as it is,” Houser said.

Pastor James Jacob says all the work couldn’t be done without the members and the community.

The church is also looking to expand many of the current programs with updated space and new technology.

“We have new children’s church rooms, classrooms that have TVs in them, wonderful cabinetry for storage, all kinds of exciting visuals on the walls. This stage is going to be great for when the kid’s choir sings vacation Bible school activities. The space around the church is going to be able to have the kids outside safely. There is all kinds of exciting things happening now,” Vicky Free said.

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In the end, the church will continue to help serve the community.

“We reach out to the community in many different ways. We have community dinners, we reach out with our food pantry, which is an offshoot of the congregation. We do other kinds of teaching training, and we have a strawberry festival every year that’s very successful. We bring the community in and our goal is we’ve met recently to expand our program outreach,” Gloria Lohr said.

The church is located at 102 Trinity Court, Bellefonte, PA.

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