Church plans to build rec center in Bremerton

BREMERTON The walls came down before. Members of a Bremerton church were looking to knock down some more Sunday.

Bishop Larry Robertson of Emmanuel Apostolic Church led a march around property anchored at Park Avenue and Eighth Street to ask God for help in raising money to build the Marvin Williams Recreation Center.

The walk is a re-creation of Joshua's escort of the Israelites around the walls of Jericho. The biblical account says the walls fell on the seventh go-round.

Church members made that first walk in about 2004 with hopes of buying the land for the center. It took five years and the specter of watching the city plan a municipal court building, but in 2009 the land became the church's.

This time, Robertson said, he thinks their Sunday march should yield results much faster. He's hoping for construction on the center to begin by the end of this year, ahead of the church's most recent goal of August 2014.

The recreation center is designed to satisfy a need apparent in West Bremerton. "We just felt there needs to be a gymnasium and there needs to be a facility that can facilitate the little educational and wellness appetites for the kids that are in this area," Robertson said.

The basketball connection fits well with the name on the building. Williams, a Bremerton High School graduate and NBA player with the Atlanta Hawks, was given that honor for his support of the church and the community center project.

Besides the basketball court and exercise equipment, the center will have meeting room space and dining facilities. "People in this area don't have a lot of money to put behind the health and wellness issues," Robertson said.

The pastor counts the YMCAs in Silverdale and Bremerton and the Youth Wellness Center planned for East Bremerton among "the beautiful things happening in Kitsap County." He said he doesn't want his church's center to duplicate anything but to be part of the community's improvement.

A second phase of the campus Emmanuel plans will have room for a retailer that Robertson said will be there to sell something that fits with the community and offers Bremerton youth an opportunity to learn how to be smart economically.

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Church plans to build rec center in Bremerton