By Thomas Yang’s estimates, about 700 people who speak Chinese as their primary language live in Topeka.

Of that number, about 25 attend the Topeka Gospel Church, the city’s only Chinese-language congregation.

Yang and other members of the church would like to see more people who speak Chinese join the congregation, which meets at 11 a.m. Sundays on the second floor of Topeka Bible Church’s College Avenue Building, 1135 S.W. College.

Church members also meet at 7 p.m. Wednesdays for Bible study at a member’s house.

“We want to offer spiritual support,” Yang said, “and we also want to give people a cultural experience.”

For many of the congregation’s members, attending Topeka Gospel Church is the only opportunity they have on a regular basis to speak Chinese with others. It also offers a chance for them to worship and sing hymns in their native language.

Yang, who has been in Topeka for seven years and who retired recently from his job as a facilities manager at Washburn University, said Topeka Gospel Church was started 30 years ago in the fall of 1982, when three homemakers came together for a Bible study.

A year later, they organized the Topeka Chinese Bible Study Group. The numbers of participants continued to grow and eventually, in 1994, they moved to Southern Hills Mennonite Church.

In early 1996, the church incorporated as Topeka Gospel Church and then moved to Covenant Baptist Church.

In April 2008, the church moved to the present location in the College Avenue Building, across the street west from Topeka Bible Church’s main building.

“We appreciate Topeka Bible Church letting us use this building,” Yang said recently. “There is plenty of space here and room for us to grow.”

Sunday sermons with English-speaking pastors are translated into Chinese. Services with Chinese-language speakers, meanwhile, are translated into English, as needed.

The church holds special events including picnics, a Mid-Autumn Festival, a Chinese New Year celebration and a special Thanksgiving worship service.

Several Chinese and English Christian newspapers, magazines and books also are available for attendees to read.

Yang, a native of Taiwan, said people who speak Chinese have come to Topeka from such areas as Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Many emigrated here because of job opportunities, including working as physicians in Topeka hospitals.

Their assimilation into American society is based largely on their ability to speak English, Yang said. For some, this is a roadblock.

“Many of the women don’t speak English very well,” he said. “This keeps them from being able to find jobs.”

It also keeps them isolated, as it lessens the opportunities to get out in the community and meet others who speak primarily Chinese.

Yang said Topeka Gospel Church stands ready to help anyone who speaks Chinese, regardless of whether they are Christians.

The church can help people in areas ranging from citizenship to transportation.

Yang said some members of Topeka Gospel Church have come to the United States as Christians, having been exposed to the faith in churches in their homelands.

But many others are new to the faith until they are exposed to it at Topeka Gospel Church, which is a congregation of the Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists.

Julia Wong, another Topeka Gospel Church member, said opportunities to worship freely in China remain limited.

Wong, a Taiwan native who also is retired, said 36 people who have come to Topeka Gospel Church have became Christians in the last 10 years.

Wong said Topeka Gospel Church would like to do more outreach in the community but is limited by its small membership.

“We put all our energy into the church,” Wong said. “We’d like to do more, but we need more manpower.”

Julia Chu, another member of the church who comes from Taiwan, said some people who come to Topeka Gospel Church eventually move on to other local congregations once they get a better grip on the English language.

Though she and her husband speak English, Chu said she has opted to stay at Topeka Gospel Church because her language skills are needed there.

“We feel we can serve in other churches,” Chu said, “but we feel this is where we can be most used.”

For more information about the church, visit www.topekagospelchurch.org