What an awesome blessing!

I've written in the past about the Family Life Center our church has been building the past couple years. To recap, we are building an addition that would double the size of our church, increase classrooms (much needed!), have a full auditorium for the youth, a second kitchen, a "fire-side room," and lots of other much-needed space as Faith Baptist continues to grow in number. From the earliest planning stages, a huge commitment was made: We would never go in financial debt while building this addition and would only use what money was donated for this building project.

When Faith Baptist started, it was a pretty small church. When I first moved here, the original building was still in use for Sunday School rooms, attached to the much larger church building (it consisted of six rooms, a basement with a meeting room, a storage area, and a small bathroom). When the Family Life Center began being built, the building was separated and moved to the south west part of the parking lot, improvements made, and was renamed "The Chapel." It, like every bit of usable space in our church, is being used for classrooms, meetings, etc.

This past fall, it was brought up that another major item came up for repair on the Chapel -- the roof. Prayers were given, a collection was made, and most of the money was provided. Meanwhile, the work on the Family Life Center (FLC) continued as money was provided.

Less than a month ago, it was announced that stage one (the most expensive and time consuming part) of the FLC was completed...well under-budget due to donations of time and materials. All that was left was internal electric work, plumbing, internal flooring, painting, and a few other items. While a few rooms have been in use for some time now, it was expected that the FLC would be fully used by this summer, even while the other construction projects on it continued. That is, as long as the money would continue to be donated.

I do want to clarify that through this building and renovation project, we have never decreased our financial support for the church staff, we have increased the financial support for at least a dozen missionary families, we continue to care for aged, infirmed, and others in our church family and community, and we continue to financially support other church-based ministries. I don't say this to brag but to assure you that money has not been taken out of one pocket to provide to another.

Yesterday before the start of the sermon, our church body was told about a gift given to our church to be used where needed. We were blessed with a bequeathment of $85,000.00. Wow! What an awesome way God continues to bless us as we continue to seek His will, His direction, and have faith that He will provide!

Come visit us here at Faith Baptist some time. While I'd love for you to visit in person, you're welcome to check out our website, too! http://www.faithbaptistpr.org/ And please pray that we will continue to always use that which God has given to us in the way that He intends, in a way that will glorify Him.