Is Dad Smiling?

When we purchased the property for our new church it included an oval for riding horses and a large building that had once been a stables for the horses which were raised and trained there. The oval was where our new building was built. The stables was dirty and in bad shape, except for the walls and foundation. It was suggested that someday this would be a good place for a youth center. Many volunteers shared in gutting and cleaning up the inside. A new roof was put on to protect it. An architect was hired as was a former missionary who was to head up the construction. The big problem was how to finance this since over $500,000 would need to be raised. The congregation was encouraged to start when a number of businesses and a foundation made large donations for the youth center. Work was begun and a magnificent building emerged. The finished product contains a large meeting area with the very latest in sound and projection equipment, a kitchen and a large eating area which is even equipped with booths from a former local restaurant, a large classroom, a fully equipped game room, modern bathrooms, large storage areas for church and children's ministry supplies, and a huge garage for storing our vans and doing other maintenance work. Many churches would love to have such a building for their church building, not just a youth center. Because of what it was originally, it has officially been named the Stables Youth Center. It is now used for all youth events as well as receptions, parties, meetings, and all sorts of gatherings. It is beautiful, modern, and very functional. But there has been one major problem – finances. The campaign to raise money from businesses faltered and fell way short of its goal. As a result, the church had to take out a large note to pay for it and this placed a very heavy burden on the congregation with the already heavy mortgage for the new church. But my father had the vision and fully supported this project. His one desire was to see this note eliminated as quickly as possible so that the congregation could concentrate on reducing the mortgage. Presently we owe $1,846 each week on the church principal and $2,200 each week on the interest. So over $4,000 is needed each offering for the mortgage. The Stables note is in addition to this. Well, dad didn't live long enough to see his desire fulfilled – elimination of the note on the Stables. But when he died we tried to honor his desire by designating that all memorial gifts received would go to reducing the note on the Stables. There were numerous gifts received the first month after his death but several others have continued to come in during the past year, including three last Sunday. This brings the total of memorial gifts in dad's memory to $20,270 and this reduces the note on the Stables to less than $2,000! PTL! And, with either a few more memorial gifts before the end of the month, or with the next payment from the church budget, the note will finally be retired by the end of March. This is so exciting. Dad would be thrilled. The Lord has been so good and we are so thrilled that, even in death, the Lord has used my dad's life to provide another landmark in the history of our church. His influence continues to impact the ministry at Faith Bible Fellowship Church, in Lancaster, that he helped found in 1950. I wonder if dad knows about this new development and if he does, I am sure that he has a big smile on his face.