On a bitterly cold Wednesday evening in January, the Coney Island Gospel Assembly was packed, its handsome dark wooden pews filled not with Pentecostal worshippers, but local residents hoping for help. They’d come to the largest church in Coney Island to hear representatives from the American Red Cross, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Small Business Administration (SBA) and other agencies discuss the programs that could help them recover from superstorm Sandy.
The church’s pastor, Constance SanFilippo-Hulla, opened the evening with a prayer.
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