Friday, December 11, 2015

Merry Christms South Carolina



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


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