Spiritual Close-Call

Hmmmmm. Some things just don't make sense on the day they happen. Take for example the fact that for a month we as a Church in Ballincollig were looking at renting a warehouse to use for our Drug Addiction programme, and our Teen Activities, and especially Church Dinners. But the decision of renting the building had to be put off until after the revival was finished. Many of the church folks had already gone over with me during the revival meetings to personally take a good look at the large room, and see its possible uses. The very next week (this past Sunday evening), the Church stayed after the normal preaching for a short business meeting to discuss how we were going to pay for the warehouse. We talked, and took up pledges that exceeded the cost of the building - praise God! The Church had spoken with its pocketbook that this step, even though expensive, was what the Lord would have us do! The very next day, I rang the man who owned the building, and before going too far, he stopped me and sadly told me he had JUST let it out to another man on Saturday! We missed getting the building by just two days! I was very disappointed. As I told others in the church, they too were disappointed. But we took courage that the Lord knew what He was doing, even though WE didn't know what He was doing. Well, to our greater surprise, yesterday, we were notified by the owner of the place that we currently meet (the Westgate Foundation), that rent was sky-rocketting starting in April! I mean, the cost of renting the Westgate Foundation rooms was trebling - starting in April, we would be paying THREE times the fees that we were paying just in December!
So, what's the moral of the story? Well, if we HAD gotten that warehouse, it would NOT have sufficed for us to use as a Church because it is just too small, and we would be having to go and find other accomodations for the Church, and expenses would be far too much with us still trying to purchase some land here in the Cork area soon (more about that later)! So, the Lord STOPPED us from renting that warehouse because He knew we needed to find better rented facilities, or be ready to purchase some land, and we could not do that if we also had the rent of this warehouse hanging around our necks for a year long lease! All of that exercise was to get us ready to either rent a BETTER building (with better value for money that what we currently are getting from the Westgate Foundation), or to purchase finally some land! I think we are ready!
God is so good to us! We don't deserve His intervention, and yet He does! Praise God!
Now, on to finding a better place for our people to meet! Please pray that we find the right place, and pray we can ultimately get our own property - all for the glory of God and His Son Jesus Christ!
Pastor Craig Ledbetter - Ballincollig, Ireland (www.biblebc.com)