A Christmas Miracle

A few weeks ago we were stuck at around £260,000 in our fundraising for the extension and refurbishment of our church halls. We were contemplating a significant downgrade of our plans. We knew we would need at least £316,000 to allow the project to go ahead as originally envisaged. To be quite honest it felt like an impossible goal. 

So...

We called a week of prayer - thank you to many of you who joined in and prayed for us. 
We then had a day of giving - thank you to many who gave. 

At one point in the prayer meeting I found myself praying aloud that the Lord might provide all of the funds needed before Christmas. It was one of those moments (they happen often to me) when you instantly regret what has just come out of your mouth. 

What a silly, impossible prayer (I thought).

And yet.... 

I checked in today with our treasurer, one last time before Christmas. He shared the amazing news that, to date, £315,000 has been given. We have all but reached the target - and before Christmas too. I should stress that none of this recent giving has come from trust funds - our treasurer tells me that it is all from individuals or families. 

We are amazed, delighted, and very grateful for this. 

There are still many steps that lie ahead. We need to secure a building warrant (pray that the council don't require significant changes to our design, which could incur extra costs). Please also pray for our Quantity Surveyor (a member of our church) who is currently quite unwell. Pray for him to make a good recovery - in part so that he can complete work on our drawings so we can get them submitted to the council. 

We still have a couple of applications to trust funds in the pipeline. Please pray that our application to the National Churches Trust will be successful. Without boring you with every detail, if that grant is awarded we might be able to go back to our original design for the roof of the extension (we had already taken some cost-cutting measures to get us down to the £316K figure). 

The headline here is simply - thank you. Praise the Lord for his provision, and thank you (his people) for praying and supporting us. 

Peter Turnbull - Burghead Free Church