Island has a new church: The Way Assembly of God
New Pine Island residents Pastor Randy Carlson and his wife, Rene, have established a new church in Bokeelia. They have restored the old abandoned church at 5990 Cubles Drive into The Way Assembly of God.
“My parents were missionaries and since I was 2 years old I have been overseas: Pakistan, Fiji and the South Pacific doing missionary work with them,” Randy said. “We decided to retire from missionary work and begin a new church in Southwest Florida.”
The Carlsons have three children.
“Our children experienced so many different cultures that there just isn’t any prejudice,” Rene said. “We have two girls and a boy who will be joining us here on Pine Island. Our son ran a dive business when we were in the South Pacific. He sold the business and came back with us to start the church.”
“We came to Cape Coral from the Kingdom of Tonga, which is possibly the only remaining true monarchy left,” Randy said. “Tonga is 500 miles southeast of Fiji and 1,500 miles north of New Zealand.
“We found Pine Island by way of Cape Coral,” he said. “We are committed to Southwest Florida but things just didn’t come together in Cape Coral. Then a friend of our son’s mentioned an old building on Stringfellow on Pine Island that used to be a Baptist church. I was told the building had been sitting empty for years and there was a sign out front that says ‘For Sale by Owner.'”
The Carlsons contacted the owner late last year and found the funds to purchase the 2 1/2-acre property.
“We had a lot of work to do to get the building and the grounds ready,” Randy said. “We’ve had six weeks of services with our first service on Dec. 7.”
“We’ve met so many friendly people,” Rene said. “And they have been praying for a church of Assembly of God. Some have been going to the Assembly of God Church in Fort Myers but they are happy to have one on the island and we are very happy to be here.”
“We are here to stay,” Randy said. “We have lots of plans for the church. We see this church growing and expanding to developing children ministries. Our immediate goal is to tie into the community beginning with a fish fry and barbecue on Feb.15 at 2 p.m. We would like to invite everyone to come out. We will have some corn hole and horseshoes and some barbecue and for course fish.”
Services at the The Way Assembly of God are Sunday at 10:30 a.m. and Wednesday at 7 p.m.
For more information, email TheWayAssembly@gmail.com or visit www.TheWayAssembly.com