Over the past few years we have talked about the loss of our Chapel in July of 2001. The old Chapel was destroyed by the high winds of a near miss tornado that went through the area.
Like so many true churches and Ministries of faith we are not a wealthy organization. We work with what we have to help others. Often we do not build the great Cathedrals, only the little Chapels for the common person to have a place to feel safe and a place to join with other folks in faith.
We found an old building and spent every extra dime we could find to put a down payment on it. Then we slowly started to buy materials needed to convert the building into a humble Chapel to share our various faiths. This of course is an ongoing struggle.
The chapel opened on Palm Sunday 2003. The new office was built as a module to be connected once the main addition is added behind the chapel. This portion of the building was completed in Sept. 2004 and the office moved in to the larger modular unit. Currently the office is at the old chapel location and will be transported once we have the rest of the building ready.
Some of you have helped with donations and we appreciate your willingness to help us help others by making a building to serve. Today we see the Chapel as a place to hold services, ceremonies, scout meetings, and many other functions. Since the Chapel was made operative we have served the community and look forward to expanding our work even further. We look forward to the day that the rest of the building is finished enough to expand these functions. The offices of the Ministries are still separate from the church building and will continue to operate from there until we can add the addition to the back of the building. This past year we completed the office modular so that it can be attached once we can build the main rooms behind the chapel.
We have started the construction on the south third of the building to convert it to a fellowship/greeting area for folks between functions. The new sub floor is in place, the new restroom is roughed in and the walls covered, the new kitchenette has the sink and counters temporarily in place waiting cabinets where framing now serves. The ceiling insulation is in place and part of the new wiring is finished. We changed the power inlet, added the new furnace, put in the new circuit box and once more patched the roof.
When we purchased this building for conversion we knew it would need additional space immediately to serve the Ministries properly. We plan to add an additional 24 feet across the back of the building to have class rooms, offices and a conference, reception area for all to use. Though we realize many of our members may not be close enough to make use of the new facilities when finished, this will be the new headquarters of the Universal Ministries.
Your help through contributions of building materials and money will help us to help others. We estimated the conversion to cost around $10,000.00 when we started the project. Since the project started this figures became outdated. Perhaps it was wishful thinking or just a matter that we did not have the funds to buy everything at once. Material costs have grown faster than the funds to meet the original estimate as materials have more than doubled in cost over the last year. Taking into consideration that the labor is given freely and that money is spent only on needed materials, we still find we are now almost $10.000.00 short of finishing the original project. The new 12' X 20'office building cost as much as was originally projected for the 24'x 40' main addition. We did not anticipate that War, tornadoes, hurricanes and economical increase would raise material costs so far beyond our initial budget, but such is where we are today.
Making a building to serve should be the same as when we serve others in faith. We do not do so for capital gain, but to pass forward what The God each of us worships, has given us freely. Materials cost money in this world so we are moving forward as such funds become available.
When the Church project is completed we will list the names of each person, family and business that has helped us make the new Church a reality, in the main foyer of the building.
For those that would care to help in this endeavor of building a new Chapel we have made material donations easy through the Menards Lumber company. Click here for information on that program. You may mail donations or use the online order system to give any amount you wish by using the donations area and adding a note in the memo section "Building fund."
Okay! We have now shared what happened, what we are doing to correct the problem, and begged you for money. Now we get to the pictures of what we started with and where we are today. We will be adding more pictures as we continue the process of making an old building of man into a new building of faith.
