KINGFIELD – With brilliant bands of color from stained glass-filtered rays streaming across its pews, it’s hard to imagine that just four months ago this church was crumbling apart.

In fact, even the members of the Kingfield United Methodist Church didn’t realize that rotting wood was causing their spiritual center to decay and possibly give way.

It wasn’t until Freeland Savage, chairman of the church’s board of trustees, descended into the crawl space between the circa-1895 building and its support did he realize just how bad it was.

“We either had to shut down the church or we had to fix it. It just wasn’t safe,” Savage said. “At anytime, some section of the floor could have collapsed.”

In January, a contractor gutted the daylight basement undercroft of the church and filled the three-foot-high crawl space beneath the building with crushed stone and concrete.

The main beams that held the level of the building comprised of the sanctuary were also readjusted to provide better support.

Now, Savage and community and church volunteers are laying new vinyl flooring, brushing some fresh paint on the walls and doing the rewiring.

In the interim, Sunday school has been on hold and the church suppers that are known to draw upwards of 100 people have been moved to the town hall.

Savage is keeping the faith that by June 1, the massive reconstruction project will be complete and that church business will be back to normal.

“This is going to be much nicer and more welcoming,” he said, glancing around the sunlit undercroft before dusting some specks of Sheetrock off his work clothes.

But, it hasn’t come without a price.

With only 35 members, the church is struggling just to put the pastor up and keep the heat on.

In September, members began a campaign to raise money for the renovations, setting a goal of $35,000, the majority of it through grants and community support and the remaining $7,500 from congregation members.

All the money was supposed to be in by April 1, but days afterward the church is still far from its goal.

Savage has submitted a dozen grant applications. Last week, he received word that the Western Mountains Fund of the Maine Community Foundation was awarding them $2,500, to supplement the $3,000 the Maine Community Foundation had administered last fall through the King and Jean Cummings Charitable Trust.

But, community and congregation donations are down forcing the church to withdraw $17,500 from one of its trust funds. Savage estimates it will take years to pay it back.

Instead of holding fund-raising suppers once a month, they’ve upped it to twice a month to help keep the church going.

Despite the hardships, the repairs were crucial, not just to save the antiquated church, but also to support those in need in the Kingfield area.

The church has a community housing program that fixes up homes for needy community members and also sponsors the food pantry, thrift shop and housing programs of the United Methodist Economic Ministry in Salem.

After growing up in Kingfield, moving away to pursue a career as an aerospace engineer, and then coming back, the renovation project holds special meaning to Savage.

“This church was my family’s church for many, many years,” he said. “So, it’s very satisfying for me to be able to support this church and physically restore it.”

For more information about the Kingfield United Methodist Church, contact pastor Norman Boulay at 265-4613.

sdepoy@sunjournal.com

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