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A Statement of Praise

Thursday, December 08, 2005

Praise the Lord!

As many of you probably know (especially if you look at my profile above), I serve as Pastor of Messiah Baptist Fellowship - An Independent Fundamental Baptist Church in Salisbury, Maryland. The church celebrated its seventh anniversary in October. For the majority of those seven years, the church has been meeting next to the Red Door Sub Shop in the South Salisbury Plaza in Salisbury and we have been praying for God to provide us with a building or some property that we could use for His glory.

For the last few months we have been praying for a specific church building here in Salisbury that was/is occupied by a church that is moving to a different location. This building has a good location that is easily accessible and not too far from our current location. The building itself is in pretty good shape and has room for us to grow as well as rooms for us to have Sunday School, fellowships, children's ministries, and offices. It even has a kitchen and our own bathrooms (that will make more sense to our own people than to most others who may read this).

Anyway, during the last month in particular, we have been in negotiations in an attempt to secure this building. Rather than being standard negotiations through a real estate agent, this was direct negotiations with the selling church. The matter was complicated by the fact that there was another church interested in the property as well and the selling church did not want to have the interested churches get into a bidding war, so they were dealing with two churches that both wanted the building and were offering the same thing and they were needing to decide between the two identical offers. (I would not have wanted to be in their place.) We have been praying that God's will would be done and that God would give them wisdom in making their selection.

To continue my long story, the Pastor called me and told me that they had decided to sign our contract!! Praise the Lord!!! Our people are excited. I am excited. I know some of you have been praying with us and I imagine you will be excited for us, as well.

We still have the normal aspects to deal with regarding the buying of the property (e.g. the seller has a contingency regarding the building they are buying, financing needs to be finalized, etc.), but at this point it is a go and I praise the Lord for His working in this situation.

Thank you to all of you who have been praying with us for this building.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

6 comments:

Unknown said...

That's great! Now you can host the next ACCC meeting. Seriously, I'm glad the Lord has worked this out for you. These things can become difficult.

Don Johnson said...

Hallelujah! We moved into our own building 5 years ago, after 15 years of renting an old community hall. One's own property is a real blessing.

Regards,
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

Unknown said...

An A of G church in our community won the bid for a vacant elementary school. But after being offered the contract, the donors backed out. So, they have until the end of December to come up with $500,000 or they will lose their $10,000 deposit. Unfortunately, the church is now seeking the money in any way possible, including offering naming rights to the highest donor. Yikes! What's next? Quicken Loans Church of God?

Frank Sansone said...

Pastor Rupert,

I don't think we'll be hosting the ACCC meeting anytime soon - I think our max capacity will be about 120.

"Naming Rights?" If you want to pass on $50,000 we may be willing to name something after you (not the church, though) - I am sure we could at least put up a plaque or give you a link on my blog:).

Pastor Johnson,

15 years! Wow! I know that Chris is on about 7 years and my friend Eric Chapman in Lithuania is on about 10 1/2 years, but 15? Wow.

We are definitely excited about the new property and the opportuniies it provides.

Frank

Greg Linscott said...

That's great, Frank! Praise God!

Anonymous said...

Just got to thinking I don't know that I've commented on your blog. Congratulations on the building situation!

In Christ,
Scott Bothwell
(Cody, WY)

P.S. Word Press is looking pretty stable ;-)