Almost 3 years ago we rented our first storefront for the church. It was a great place to meet for worship and outreach. We had our first Christmas service there, 3 English Camps there, our first membership class there. Luke took his first communion there. Throughout these 3 years, through many joys and trials, God has grown our congregation to the point that we need to move to a bigger place.
After much prayer and searching, God led us to another storefront in the same district, right on a tram line, with a much larger meeting room, for the same rental price. There's a catch though. There's always a catch, right? In order to get this place the way we want, there's a lot of renovation work we need to do. We began working in mid-January and are diligently trying to finish before Easter. In the mean time we're still meeting at our old place.
A couple of decades ago someone thought it would be a good idea to cover up a beautiful historic ceiling with drywall. (see below)
Daniel, our faithful project manager, thought it would be a better idea to rip the drywall ceiling down and restore the historic ceiling. (We all agreed!)
While we were at it, we thought knocking down a brick wall would be a fun thing to do. Two full dumpsters later, we've still got one more dumpster's worth of debris to go!
It's been great to see so many from the church help out. Luke's been doing the work of a grown man. Can you spot him?
There is a bit of buzz in the neighborhood. Many people stop to ask what we're doing. When we tell them we're starting a church here the responses have been all over the board. Some are very guarded and tell us blatantly that they'll won't be attending, while others have commented that it's a great thing what we're doing.
In a way, the work on our new church facility is a good metaphor for the ministry here in Vienna. We want to see lives restored and renewed. People have walls that keep them from God--whether it's alternate worldviews or comfortable lifestyles or maybe just tradition. He created us, and He's tearing down those walls one by one to restore and renew us.
Please pray for us--
that God would continue to keep all of us safe
that we'd finish up and move in by March 31
for good relationships with our neighbors and landlord
and most of all, that God would us this space to build his kingdom in Vienna.
For information about how to make a donation to the building project, please CLICK HERE.
