Bedford Presbyterian Church is the church I have been going to for 12 years. Our family started going when we moved to Manchester when I was 3. During our time at BPC, both of my parents have been very involved in the church – whether it was mission trips, helping with the Living Nativity or restoring this historic building. I have been on a couple mission trips as well, and they are incredibly fun.

There wasn’t always a beautiful church on a hill in Bedford. In fact, the Bedford Presbyterian Church has only been around since 1749. The building was built 83 years later, in 1832. Then, in 1894, the portico and columns were built. The columns held up the portico for 121 years, but in those years they experienced rain, snow and wind. This caused them to begin to rot, and the concrete steps underneath it were starting to disintegrate. The capitals, which are the scroll-looking pieces of plaster on the top of the columns, were crumbling. The columns really needed to be redone.

"There’s not really a difference in what it’s like going to church," said Jenny Loefstedt, a 15-year-old girl who has been going to BPC for nine years. "Still feels the same, just looks a little different on the outside, but that’s not really what matters." The church activities and services are still going strong and won’t stop just because construction is being done on the columns. Jenny also thought it was good that they were replacing the columns "because most everything needs replacement at some point."

I will always remember one Easter when I was a candlelighter with my best friend, and after the service we ran out to the front steps and danced around the columns. I never really looked too hard at them or even realized they needed to be fixed until a couple of years ago. My mom, Fran Bader, became the buildings and grounds elder at our church, and over dinner she would talk with my dad about what needed to be done around the church. Things like the roof (which has recently been fixed), labeling the rooms and outlets, and fixing the columns. As a teen seeing all this change happening at the church, I decided to ask some other teens about what they thought of all of it.

Sky Eno has been going to Bedford Presbyterian Church for eight years and is also 15. She told me, "I’m so glad they decided to fix them. I hope these ones look as classic and welcoming as the last ones … it can be kind of sad not walking through the big front doors, but I’m so happy this repair is being made." It’s exciting to see all the changes happening to the front of the church. It is also weird to see it without the columns. You get so used to seeing something the same way that you can’t help but stare when it changes.

This much-needed restoration to the church will keep it going strong and welcoming many more congregations for generations to come.

Sarah Bader is a sophomore at Souhegan High School.