Monday, 4th May, 2009
Where we're at - an update
This blog has been up for just over three months now. We've seen enormous progress in the work at the building site. Things have moved faster than we ever expected and the quality of the work is exceptional. Enthusiasm for the project remains high in the church. Guy gave an extensive update yesterday morning at church.
We have one great bit of news to announce: The Belgian Evangelical Mission (my employer) is going to be giving us 20.000 euros for the project. This money will enable us to make a start into Phase 2 before the end of the year. God is good! We've also received news of a gift from a francophone church in the UK. More info to come on that one.
In my post "Building Towers" from January I talked about setting a challenge for the church - to give 20,000 euros before Christmas 2008. The church responded and many people gave sacrificially. That continues, the flood has become more of a trickle but that trickle is fairly constant. Before I talked to the church about this challenge I was pretty hesitant about doing so. I thought that it was the right thing to do, but I wasn't sure. I can't claim a vision or a word from the Lord directing me. It just seemed sensible that if we were going to be asking other people for money we should show that we, ourselves, were prepared to give. Time, and people's generosity, seem to have proved me correct.
Over the summer it had looked as though the project was going to grind to a halt. The day before we left for our summer holidays I received a letter from the planning department in Arlon saying that our building permit was no longer valid - if, indeed, it had ever been. This was something of a surprise to say the least. I phoned François, met him the same night, handed over the letter and associated bits and pieces and asked him to deal with it. He did. Along with the architect he put together a response to the issues outlined in the letter and sent it off. We got a reply a few weeks later saying that our building permit was granted.
I'm still not entirely sure what happened there but I know that I reached something of a low point when it looked as if all of our work might have been for nothing. I had already been wondering how we could move ahead when we were missing a substantial part of the budget. I was not prepared to just forge ahead, believing that the money would come. There is, to my mind, a fine line between faith and presumption in this kind of situation. I wanted us, then and now, to stay on the right side of that line. For me, the fact that people responded to the challenge by giving enthusiastically was a great encouragement. It is what has kept the project going.
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