EVERETT — The Rev. Ed Packard chuckled when asked for the planned completion date for Delta Community Baptist Church’s multipurpose building.
"We don’t have one," he said as he sat behind a cluttered desk in his church office. "It’s all on faith. God’s going to provide it when we need it."
The church had to have an unshakable faith to start planning a $288,000 building with almost no money to pay for it.
The faith Packard has is in God and in the generosity of church congregants. The congregation has raised about $175,000 since it began collecting money for the project in 1999. Two families donated $10,000 each, and another gave $5,000.
Most Delta Baptist members are low-income and don’t have that kind of money to give. But worshipers’ modest donations have added up to thousands of dollars, Packard said.
"They may not give much," he said, "but boy, are they faithful. It might be $20 a month, but it’s there every month."
Members also have worked at yard sales and fund-raising dinners, and some have worked shifts in the middle of the night at the Smokey Point I-5 rest stop to collect donations as they give out free coffee.
"They’re used to working for everything in life, so they’re willing to work at garage sales and rest stops," Packard said.
Every few days, 79-year-old Laura Bogart prepares aluminum cans for a church member to take to a recycling center. The church receives 24 cents a pound for the aluminum.
"I can’t walk, so I sit in my garage and crush cans," said Bogart, who uses a plastic can-crusher. "It’s just something that I can do to help."
Bogart said friends, her hairdresser and a clerk at a local market are among those who bring a steady supply of cans to her door.
Several other worshipers also collect cans. Last year, the church earned about $1,000 from aluminum — a tiny fraction of what it needs for the building, but emblematic of how it is relying on small donations to fulfill its dream.
An 84-foot by 83-foot cement foundation sits just north of the church as evidence of its progress.
"Here we go, right through the new front door," Don Ringman said as he walked up a dirt ramp onto the huge slab of cement.
Ringman, a contractor, is overseeing the project for the church. He’s gotten plumbers, engineers, landscapers and other subcontractors to donate work. Church members have volunteered for other work, including painting and putting up walls.
The church will continue to hold regular Sunday services — which attract an average of 100 people each week — in its 61-year-old sanctuary on the corner of 16th and Pine streets.
The steel-walled, pre-fabricated multipurpose building will allow the church to expand its after-school activities and possibly establish a child-care program.
"There are great needs in this community," Packard said of the surrounding neighborhood, which includes many low-income families. "There are a lot of at-risk kids whose parents both have to work."
The building also will more comfortably house ecumenical services Delta holds with other area churches several times a year. And it will allow the church to host neighborhood meetings, craft fairs, plays, concerts and other events. A second story on one part of the building will house church offices.
Events now are crammed into a small basement area that often overflows with people. At one potluck dinner a few years ago, diners were forced to eat in the nursery and on stairways.
"We scaled back after that, because we couldn’t hold everybody," Packard said.
The new building will include a kitchen nearly 10 times the size of the current one, which is about as big as a small home kitchen.
The building will sit just north of the church, on land that had been used as a sports field and parking area. Most of the parking will be preserved between the church and the building, and more will be added in the alley east of the church.
Although church members have faith in the project, they can’t help but worry about it.
"Do you lie awake nights thinking about this?" Packard asked Ringman.
"I dream about this project," Ringman replied.
"I do too," Packard said with a laugh.
Reporter David Olson: 425-339-3452 or dolson@heraldnet.com.
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