Gifts and Surprises

This post is a deviation from my normal monologue of family events. This story is very interesting and involves another important part of my life--church.

Pocomoke River Church has existed for several years now. At first we met in our pastors' home, Earl and Pansy Sheats. For the last 18 months we have met in a hotel conference room. Several months ago Pastor Earl received an unexpected phone call from a lady who owns a vacant building on Market St. She was calling to offer this building to our church as a gift. (Wow!)

Several of the men walked through the cement block building. The cement block is about the only thing of value. The roof is flat and has been leaking for a long time. Due to the leaking the interior of the building has been destroyed. The extent of the remodeling that would be required caused the men to take some time to think and pray about the decision.

The decision was made to pursue the building. Really, who can turn down the gift of property?!

Pastor Earl worked on getting the paperwork straight for the transfer of the title. This turned out to be a very long process despite the simplicity of what needed to be done. Finally, two weeks ago it dawned on him that this property was uninsured and that the trustees of the building would be held liable if anything happened. He put a call in to the head trustee (that simply needed to write minutes of a meeting resigning the old trustees and naming new ones) and in a very short time the paperwork was finished.

Last weekend Pastor Earl changed the locks on the door and brought keys to the building for the families of the church. He also had in his hand the minutes that appointed members of Pocomoke River Church as trustees of the property!

As I understand it, now that the property is properly insured, the first order of business will be a new roof. The renovations will take some time and a lot of work. We are thanking the Lord for his provision so that we will be able to reach more people with the message of salvation.