WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Reverend Gerald Kisner looking back at the impact Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church at the corner of 8th Street and Division Avenue has in the West Palm Beach community.
"The church is in its 132nd year of existence. We are actually two years older than the city of West Palm Beach," Kisner said.
It has a long history of educating the community.
"Our church has had a long history and a long connection with education and we’ve always fostered and always pushed it," Kisner said. "And a number of our young people who have gone on to graduate school have done great things because they got there I believe their incentive and motivation from here at the church."
Education has taken place in the church since 1894.
"The superintendent of schools, I understand at that time, designated our church as a facility and we had Black children come in here for classes," Kisner said.
Now, the decades-old building needs some repair.
"Anything that old begins to have some issues. Our biggest issue is with the bricks because there has been water seepage coming through. We’ve paid over $80,000, so far to help that, but we have a long way to go," Kisner said.
Kisner knows that miracles do happen as they have in the past.
"It is a tribute to the tenacity of those old ancestors because they used their own funds to get the bricks," Kisner said. "And if you notice the different coloring, they ran out of the bricks that they could buy. So people started bringing individual bricks some from Alabama some from other places to actually finish it."
They are aiming to have the building remains strong for another 100 years.
"This has been a beacon with a house on the hill serving Christ. We've done a lot of things with social issues," Kisner said.
Click here to read more and find out how you can help restore the church.
