Connections Church in Federal Way doesn’t yet have a permanent home, but members are already serving the homeless and giving back in the community.

The church was started by Pastor Jonathan Lee who told the Mirror the group has grown to about 30-40 members.

Lee said he and his wife noticed that they couldn’t find a church that focused on being multiethnic in town and wanted to create it themselves to represent the community of Federal Way.

In addition to focusing on representing the diversity of the community, Lee shared that the main goal of the church is to show love to the city.

About a year and a half ago, Lee said the church started working with refugee families. Their message to recent refugees is “even though we don’t know who you are, we see you. We care for you, we love you.”

After talking to Mayor Jim Ferrell and one of the council members, Lee said they learned that “we don’t have anything for refugee families, but there’s a huge need.”

This led them to get connected with about 100 refugee families. The church said it invites them to meals, barbecues and events and put on a Christmas event where members provided about 70 presents for kids.

The church has also partnered with several schools to provide free after school activities and with the Boys and Girls Club to help run a sports camp in the summer.

Lee shared that during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, he connected with several schools to see how he could help. That has evolved to providing after school program at Lakota Middle School on Fridays where students “get to play sports, so we play volleyball, play basketball, we play ping pong, we play pickleball. I mean, we you name it…football…kids play soccer outside…” Lee said.

“We started with like 10 kids. Now we have close to 50 kids,” Lee said. The school has early release each week on Fridays so the church provides the program so parents can pick them up at the regular time and the kids can have some fun.

They are also building up a similar program at Decatur High School.

Like many other faith communities in the area, Connections Church shares food with unhoused neighbors.

“We just love our community, and we want our community to know that, hey, there’s somebody who cares,” Lee said. “I think that’s the most important thing with people. Especially like working with, the homeless population, the fact that we see them as a human being, I think that’s really important, to show that respect, because everybody has their own stories…some people are just going through this… temporary [issue] and they just need an extra boost.”

Although they have a small congregation, Lee said they are determined to find a way to help anyone they can “just because you don’t have enough resources to help them, you can always find a way to do it.”

Some of the Connections Church activities are financed through a partnership with a church in Texas called the Fellowship of Montgomery. Other activities are made possible because of volunteers and partnerships from local restaurants and nonprofits.

Connections Church is currently meeting in person about once a month and can be contacted at connectionsfw@gmail.com.