Friday, December 11, 2015
Dear Friends,
The work in South Carolina is progressing after the
hurricane flooding in Columbia area. We hope to help with more of the
work there. Currently, we have $3000.00 to help Congaree Baptist Church
in the Columbia, SC area. We need a church that would volunteer a
skilled work team to use this money for the church repair. Please read
the message from Pastor Driggers about their progress up to this time.
“Bro Jan, …The following is a list of groups that have
helped us thus far:
•
Groups of young people from First Baptist in Columbia came twice to help with
cleanup.
•
50 Students from Bob Jones University came to help with cleanup and tore out
walls for us in the sanctuary.
•
A group of men from Faith Baptist in Taylors provided and installed nearly
$2000 worth of cabinets in the Kitchen.
•
A group of men and one young lady from Morningside Baptist church in Greenville
provided all new interior doors for the Fellowship building and primed all the
walls for us.
•
An independent contractor (Bruce Smith) donated carpeting for two offices and
the nursery
•
There have been a small army of individuals that have donated time to help, to name
just a few: Darrell Wood, Dave Smith, Josh Williamson, Randy Morgan and many
others; along with our own people who have worked tirelessly
Forgive me if I left you out there have been so many!
There have been many groups and individuals that have sent
monetary help, just to name a few: Operation Renewed Hope, Faith Baptist in
Taylors, Morningside Baptist in Greenville, Victory Baptist in Whiteville NC,
Grace Baptist in Columbia, Baptist Mid Missions, Liberty Baptist in Snow Hill
NC, Sumter Baptist Temple in Sumter SC, and many other groups and individuals.
Thank you to all.
Once again forgive me if I left you out, there have been
so many!
I am thankful for all the work that has been done it is
amazing to see the progress of the work, yet there remains much left to do. It
has been our plan to make the Fellowship building as functional as possible
because we will be meeting in this building until the sanctuary is done. We
have completed the pastor's office and church office in this building, the walls
have been primed, the nursery has been painted and carpeting should be
installed this week, new cabinets have been installed in the kitchen. There
still remains several things to be done before work on the Fellowship building
is complete, we need to; repair all the ceilings and replace most of the drop
ceiling tiles in the kitchen, paint all the walls and trim, replace the floor
tiles, replace the cabinets and partitions in the bathrooms.
In the Sunday School wing: Replace all the doors, all the
flooring, prime and paint walls, replace all the ceiling tiles, and replace the
furniture (tables and chairs)
The bulk of the work will be in the Sanctuary. This
building was built sometime after but near 1800, so the materials that were
used did not come off the shelf from Lowes which makes some of the rebuild
challenging. We had a gentleman (Robert Grant) who specializes in helping
churches in building programs (he's been doing this for over 30 years) come and
assess our needs. His estimation is that it will cost somewhere in the
neighborhood of $120,000 to repair and replace things need in the Sanctuary to
make it usable again. That cost can be greatly reduced if we are able to do
most of the work ourselves. He also put us in touch with an architect in
Charleston who specializes in historic buildings.
Our plan for the rebuild has been to start in the
Fellowship building and work our way to the Sanctuary. So that's what we
continue to do. When I stop and think about it all it seems overwhelming, much
like the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem must have seemed to the people of
God, but God sent a man with a vision of faith named Nehemiah who saw past the
rubble and saw a God who was bigger than the need. He was able to organize the
people into small units and assigned a small manageable part of the wall to
work on. So that's what we have been doing, working on one thing at a time,
concentrating on just what is in front of us and moving on to the next thing
when that's done. And so the work progresses "because the people have a
mind to work".
It is my prayer that the Lord will be glorified in all
that happens through this event. Nothing has taken the Lord by surprise,
"and we know that all things work together for good". It is also my
prayer that through all this the Lord would magnify Himself and the work at
Congaree that we might be more effective as the "pillar and ground of
truth" in our area as we preach the Word of God.
Thank you again for all you help. May the Lord richly
bless you all. In HIs Work, Rev Tim Driggers, Congaree
Baptist Church”
Please contact ORH if your church has a skilled team that
can help continue the repairs of the church.
Merry Christmas and
God bless,
Jan Milton
Operation Renewed Hope
1017 Sage Green Ct.
Raleigh, NC 27610
910-987-5072
