After the first worship at Holy Trinity Bethlehem Church (11th & Rockland) on January 5th, 1975, the first temple (May 17th, 1980, 5th & Rockland), and the second temple (December, 1987, W. Tabor rd., aka Tabor Hill), we are now set to move into our third temple (Ambler) next week.
Indeed, just like that of the Israelites, the 40 years history of FKPCP was the history of the temple. We dragged our tired bodies to church after work, and sawed and hammered under car headlights to cut out, break down, rip off and carry away, well past midnight. We removed dangerous chemicals, covering our mouths with only a single mask to reduce the cost. Countless times, we went up on the roof to repair it. We've fallen from the roof, we've fallen from trees...
Our building carries endless memories from the history of past 28 years of our church: blood and sweat, tears and laughter, weddings and funerals, big outside events, sending of 6 families of missionaries, presbytery meetings, general assembly meetings for the denomination and KWMC, SFC retreats, Korean school, nursery, senior citizen school...
To the elders and kwon-sa-nims who are already in heaven, to those who have moved to other states, Korea, or other Philadelphia churches who we still consider, and will continue to consider, as FKPCP members, to the faces we want to see and the names we want to call out to: we really miss you this morning, on our last worship day at Tabor Hill and want to say, "You did well. Thank you. And we love you. The rest of us here will do our best."