January 15, 2014

Tonight was a very special night in the life of Life Pointe Church. We gathered together, 22 of us in all, to dedicate the building, that is remodeling, demolition, and then construction on the building that will soon be the new home of Life Pointe Church. It was very exciting to see 22 people, of all ages come out to pray, eat, fellowship, and then tear down a few walls! It was very exciting to see the enthusiasm of the people and of what God is going to do!  I just don't ever feel like I give the Lord enough credit and praise for giving me the people that He has that make up Life Pointe Church!  I am blessed, humbled, and excited to be their pastor.

January 10, 2014

I can't believe I am finally able to type this entry on my blog page but here it is: TODAY WE ACHIEVED COMPLETION AND RECEIVED PERMISSION TO START WORK AND SOON MOVE IN TO OUR NEW CHURCH BUILDING!! I was so excited yesterday when I knew today would be the "closing" day but I wanted to wait and make sure and so today I called Tammi Woods the lady who helped us already change the occupancy rate by letting us include a potential 20% of our folks that come to Life Pointe as walk ups or bus riders so our rate went from 68 to 85; so today I called her to let her know the front of the building would remain "as is" and so after confirming that with her, she let the folks in the planning office know and so....I was able to go down and "close the deal" so to speak and finally get our permission notice or approval and work permit.  It was so exciting that I wanted to pray right there in the office but I just decided to do that in the car. And a woman named Jill Caldwell, was very helpful and made it so the church does not have to pay real estate taxes; that will save the church thousands of dollars so it was a good day indeed in the continual progression of us getting into our new church building and seeing God's Hand of blessing and provision.  Praise the LORD! I look forward to announcing the great news this Sunday!

January 9, 2014

Well, here I go typing one of the most important messages that I have ever typed since beginning this blog page 6 years ago! Wow, it must be a BIG announcement, you may be thinking....and you'd be absolutely right! After weeks and weeks and now months and months, and applications, appraisals, approvals, and lots of forms filled out and lots of talks and planning....when I came in today from driving students....Ginny told me that Bane Compton had left a message for me.  So I turned around and called him immediately and he then told me if I would just call one more person in the morning and tell them one more thing via the email route, then I could finally come downtown at the Planning office and pick up my.....are your ready? I could pick up the Certificate Of Occupancy and our Work Permit to finally be able to start work on remodeling the church!!! How exciting is that??? So we have finally come to the point of starting work and soon moving in! It really is hard to believe.....God has taught us much a a church and certainly taught me a lot to increase my faith....May we continue on with God's blessing and be full speed ahead looking forward to what God has in store for us!  Praise the Lord! 

January 7, 2014

Today is January 7, 2014; tomorrow will be the 8th and also the day that 16 years ago my Daddy left this earth to go and be with Jesus in heaven. I certainly miss him but glad he and my Momma can be together in heaven enjoying the presence of Jesus! I am sure they would both be proud of what we are doing at Life Pointe and knowing Daddy he would have his hammer and saw wanting to help us remodel and build a nice church and one that we can all be proud of.  With so much time gone since my last post on November 22, 2013, it's hard to recall all the things that have taken place since then. I know I should do a better job of just listing a few things, rather than wait and try to mention them all. But alas.....I will try to name a few things with some of them being very, very, exciting knowing we are getting closer to being in our new church home.

1. On December 31, (My Momma's birthday) just a few weeks ago, I finally handed in all the things I needed to hand in to the city planning office so they could give us permission to start work on remodeling. That requires that we have a CO, Certificate of Occupancy and of course a work permit too.  It was just hard to believe but felt so good that I finally had  e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g ready to hand in; the revised plans; the certificate for asbestos; the form mentioning our planned changes to accommodate the ADA requirements; and the latest form showing we had taken care of all the necessary changes required.

2. I might mention that I had already turned in our plans once but the person in charge, Bane Compton, had asked for some clarifications from Hughes & Associates about certain points they had not made clear on the first set of plans. At least they didn't charge us since they had left off the details required by the city folks. Of course some of the things were fine but there is one particular thing that I hope can stay the way it is and that is a fixture in the men's bathroom.

3. One of the things Hughes & Associates had previously mentioned was that we could only have 68 people in our building. When I figured that we could at least have 85 they didn't exactly agree with that since there are only 17 parking spaces at our building and each space is allowed 4 people thus equally the 68 they mentioned in their original plans. I called and Bane Compton told me "let's see if I can put you in touch with someone who can help you." He did give me a number and so I called and left a message with a woman who knows about such matters. She called me back in the afternoon at about 2:00 and I normally would have been in class or driving so that would have been tough; but God, like He so often does, make a way! As I was coming out to drive, the fire alarm sounded at Salem High School and so I was not able to leave as I was going to, and was instead able to wait for a few minutes and talk to the lady who did in fact help me. She said because some people may take public transportation or walk up to the church (the exact things I told Ginny about the week before when I questioned the previous number) she was able to add 20% or so. She asked "how many people did you think you could have?" and when I said 85 she said, "let's see...85 times 20 percent would be 17 and 17 plus 68 would be..."..........you guess it...85! The exact number I had in mind! isn't God great???!!!  So that was taken care of!

4. On December 31, 2013 we also held a prayer meeting at our building. Along with the good food and the planning by Jim, Brian, and Angel and myself, we also had Ginny, Beth, Marjory, and Carley and Beatrice, someone kin to Angel. I was just glad we could get together and ask God's blessing on our building and on His working on the people who He would bring to us.

Today is January 7, 2014 and I visited the City of Roanoke's office and handed in our exemption letter to keep from paying real estate taxes and found everyone I spoke to today was as usual, very nice to me. It would appear God's favor continues to rest on me as I seek the approval of the powers that be in the city offices. So while all this has taken time, a lot of time it seems, nevertheless, things are progressing and by the end of this week....we may....just may....be in our building!