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The Gathering will celebrate its fifth birthday in November! God has so richly blessed our church! We purchased 10 acres on Yankee Street and are getting the land prepared for our new church home.
Bruns Construction is our contracting partner. They are working diligently to help us to save as much as possible in the building process of our 20,000 square foot building. They have agreed to let us do much of the work ourselves. This not only gives us ownership but allows us to save major dollars for ministry. We plan to work together as teams doing drywall, painting, flooring, landscaping, etc.
Every day a member of The Prayer Crew spends time in prayer at the property. We want every single aspect of the building process to go according to His plan. Please pray for His protection on all the workers and volunteers.
Saturday, November 8, 2009 we had a work day on our property! What a day it was! About 40 were there with chain saws, mowers, rakes and all other forms of tools. We completely demolished one of the existing homes and gutted another. We cleared downed trees, cleared away brush and lots of debris. 
Our Board continues to work on the financial aspects of our new building. They are meeting with various financial and construction groups, seeking the best deal for our church. In addition they met with our contractor, Bruns General Construction, last week. Bruns is considering how they can partner with us to meet our construction goal.
Please pray for:
Bruns as they consider their role financially in our building program.
His will to be done in the life of our church.
Wisdom for our Board as they seek different avenues of financing
Faithfulness of our people to continue to give to Because We Believe
Patience for our church as we wait on Him and His perfect timing.
If you have driven down Yankee Street lately, past our property, you see that the steel for framing our new church home has been delivered. While this has been exciting to see we may need to wait just a little longer to see it being erected. Our financing has been delayed. We believed that our financing was all but complete as we were waiting for the final property appraisal to be returned to our potential lender. Unfortunately, our property appraisal came back low. This caused our potential lender to put a pause button on our loan. In our current economy all lenders are being extremely cautious. We are currently seeking alternative lenders and are in serious discussions with several different institutions. While this news was not what we were anticipating we believe that God is not surprised and we are trusting Him to reveal His plan for us in His timing.
Please pray for:
His will to be done in the life of our church
Wisdom as we seek different avenues of financing
Faithfulness of our people to continue to give to Because We Believe
Patience for our church as we wait on Him and His perfect timing.
July 2008
Dear Gathering Family:
We are seeing unbelievable things happen at The Gathering! After only 18 short months we are about to embark on a construction project to complete our first permanent church home. As you know, our plans are very exciting and we continue to pray for God’s wisdom and leadership as we move forward. With the Lord’s blessing we will start construction on a 20,900 sq. ft. building around mid-late August. Special thanks to Danny McCloud for his construction expertise in getting the best possible building for the best price!
We wanted to communicate some things that have been happening over the course of the last few months. The process has seemed slow and arduous at times. But we believe that we are nearing the final steps before we break ground. Since our last communication to you, our efforts have been focused on two things: finalizing building plans and then attempting to match building cost estimates to National City Bank loans. Even we were surprised at the complexities of this.
As many of you know, in April of this year we began a spiritual journey together called Because We Believe. This campaign is rooted in Jeremiah 29:11-13 “For I know the plans I have for you says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future…” Although we did not reach our campaign goal of one million dollars, we are holding this verse close and moving forward. With the approximately $800,000 in pledges, we are choosing to be wise stewards of what God has given us and working to live within our means.
The building cost estimates have come in at approximately $1.9 million. This estimate, although more than what we were hoping for, is extremely cost competitive in today’s market. National City Corp has approved funding of approximately 80% of our building project. However, they have asked that roughly 20% of the loan be personally guaranteed by some of our members. We are asking 14 people to step up to guarantee $50,000 each. Just to be clear, our problem is not cash flow. We are working on building equity (in the bank’s eyes) in a very young organization.
The new construction loan and other considerations are as follows:
·Our total project will be approximately $2,850,000, ($950,000 for land and $1,900,000 for building).
·National City will put $1,530,000 on a first note and $660,000 on a second draw note.
·Our current pledges from our Because We Believe campaign are scheduled to be over $400,000 the first year and a little under $400,000 the second year.
·Our monthly mortgage payments will be around $17,500. We are already paying about $6,500 a month for current staff office and the Washington Rec. Center space.
·We do not currently pay extra for utilities in either of these locations, so our additional payments will be something less than $200,000 in additional cash flow.
The last step we are waiting on is the bank appraisal for the new building and the property. We anticipate a good report and then we should be clear to begin construction.We look forward to being able to provide you with more information and some exciting details of ground breaking shortly. In the meantime, please continue to pray for this effort! And if you haven’t joined us in this spiritual journey, check out the Shared Commitments button to find out more information and to make a pledge.
In Him,
Ron SmithManagement Team Chair
The construction sign is up and attracting attention to all those that drive by on Yankee! We will be “moving dirt” soon!
September 2008
If you have driven down Yankee Street lately, past our property, you see that the steel for framing our new church home has been delivered. While this has been exciting to see we may need to wait just a little longer to see it being erected. Our financing has been delayed. We believed that our financing was all but complete as we were waiting for the final property appraisal to be returned to our potential lender. Unfortunately, our property appraisal came back low. This caused our potential lender to put a pause button on our loan. In our current economy all lenders are being extremely cautious. We are currently seeking alternative lenders and are in serious discussions with several different institutions. While this news was not what we were anticipating we believe that God is not surprised and we are trusting Him to reveal His plan for us in His timing.
Please pray for:
His will to be done in the life of our church
Wisdom as we seek different avenues of financing
Faithfulness of our people to continue to give to Because We Believe
Patience for our church as we wait on Him and His perfect timing.
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