Here We Go!

Construction has begun at Gospel Hope Church! We have prayed for and planned for this project for three years. How thankful we are to begin the construction phase!

On Sunday, June 25, we met together and prayed over this property that God provided to Trinity Baptist Church twenty-five years ago. The Lord has used this property in His perfect way and in His perfect time over those years. Five years ago, we became Gospel Hope Church, and God has been directing, providing, and moving in our community in ways we couldn’t imagine.

And so, as we begin this project, we know that He will continue to direct, to provide, and to move in our community to bring people to Himself. That is what we prayed on that Sunday before construction began, asking our good God to advance His good plan through this building project.

This week, the parking lot was removed to prepare the foundation area for the new building. We’re also doing work inside our current building. We have had a very narrow hallway through our classroom area, and those narrow walls are now gone so that we can have a wider hallway. The next steps will be a lot of site work. Then the building can begin!

Your prayers and support have helped us get to this point, and we ask that you would keep praying for us as this project continues.

We Have a Foundation!

For a few weeks we have had a big hole where our parking lot used to be. Important foundational work was happening, but to us it looked like a big hole. We joked that the back of our building looked like an abandoned shack. What a great picture for our own lives, where we may see only the destruction of what used to be, while God is doing important foundational work in our souls.

And now, there is an actual foundation in that big hole. The prep work is finished, and the building has begun. This week, the fire suppression system is being installed.

Inside our original building, we have a wider hallway and reconfigured classroom spaces. All space that we trust God will use to spread his message and grow his people.

Along those lines, God is growing his people as Gospel Hope Church continues to meet in a different building on Sunday afternoons. We expected the change to be a struggle, but the Lord has filled our larger borrowed space each Sunday. Even in a new location, we get to meet new people each week. God is not waiting for the construction of the new building to keep the work of Gospel Hope Church going.

So again, we ask you to pray that God will continue opening doors for us, both in the construction process and in His kingdom work. Thank you for your care and support!

We Have Walls!

It’s been a few weeks of dirt moving, system installations, and concrete work for the foundation and slab, but now we are seeing things move above the ground level. This week, the new building got a floor, and the wall frames are up. It’s so exciting to see an actual building where we have seen a hole in the ground for so long!

We’ve also seen progress in our old building, with the sheetrock being finished in the renovated hallway and classrooms. The tiny hallway is gone, and we have a new, wider hallway where we hope we will still get to know one another, even if we aren’t stuck there waiting for a way through.

There is also progress in the new parking lot, and we’re planning to be able to use it when we meet (hopefully) in our building again on September 10. There will still be a lot to do in the new building, but it will no longer be a construction zone, and we will be able to use the property.

We will be doing a lot of the inside work ourselves and with volunteer help. We also have a local Scout troop installing the new fence around the extended parking lot and property line in September.

The visible progress is encouraging, and we are so thankful to be so close to getting back into our building. One more week (we hope) at South Mountain Community Church, our gracious hosts for the last couple of months. Again, please continue to pray for this process, and for our church to continue to be able to reach out to our community through all the changes.

We're Back Home!

We're back in our own building for Sunday services, but our property is still considered a construction zone, and it's off limits during the week. On the Saturday before our first Sunday back in the building, lots of our church family gathered together to put the building back in order. Then the new parking lot was finished that night just hours before we started parking in it the next morning.

Both the parking lot and the new hallway feel enormous to us, and the consistent reaction to both is "WOW!" It has been wonderful to be "home!"

The new building is framed out - outer walls, rooms, roof, and all. It's exciting to see so much detail-work coming together. We're looking forward to the roof being completed on the new building, as well as being updated on our old building.

Everything is moving along, but we still have several weeks of ongoing construction in front of us. Our mid-week Growth Groups are meeting around the valley, and we're thankful for the progress we get to see each weekend.

We're profoundly grateful for your prayers and support!