Happy 2016! It’s time for another update from your friends at Grace Valley Church in Dundas, Ontario, I trust you had a blessed Christmas season and are excited to see what God will do in your life and in the life of GVC in this New Year. Our December was incredibly busy, with a number of exciting developments in our worshipping community.

As you know, we bought a house last year. We took possession near the end of November. Immediately, we began work on renovating it to meet the needs of our family. I have spent much of the last month doing demolition work in the house, preparing it to be reconstructed by those with the skills to do it. We had construction drawings made up and applied for a building permit so that the reconstruction work could begin in a timely fashion. We are so thankful that last Thursday the building permit was issued and work has already begun on rebuilding our new home. There’s a lot of work to be done. We’ve been told that our target move-in date of March 31 may be unrealistically ambitious, but we will do our best to reach our goal.

As of the writing of this update, our launch team as grown to 30 adults, along with at least 16 children. Several of the moms are pregnant as well, which is exciting for us to witness. Most of our launch team members are young families (aged 25-35) who are starting their families. This creates challenges for us as we try to schedule small groups (naps, babysitting, etc.), but it is also tons of fun to have so much young life in the group.

Though our group has gathered several times for social occasions, we have yet to begin gathering regularly for Bible study and prayer. That’s all about to change! Beginning in two weeks, we will commence two separate but identical weekly small group meetings for the purpose of training and prayer. I will do teaching at both groups on the vision and mission of GVC, our core values, relational evangelism, and kingdom-centred prayer. We will also spend extended time praying for one another and the Kingdom in Dundas, along with dreaming together about what outreach initiatives we can implement this spring.

We are also in the middle of designing a church logo and website for GVC. The logo should be completed in the next couple of weeks, but we are a long way from launching the website.

Fundraising efforts continue as we have yet to reach our 5-year target of $450,000. We are close to reaching the goal, but it seems that the closer we come to getting there, the harder it is to attain! If you would like to contribute to our efforts, please contact me directly at 905 517 0936 or [email protected] God has been faithful, though, and we are confident that our needs will be met. We continue to be amazed at how many people resonate with a ministry committed to bringing the gospel in all its fullness to the town of Dundas. The more I learn about the community, the more I am convinced of the need for another gospel presence in this beautiful and strategic town.

We bought a church property! This is one of the exciting developments of the last month. On a lark, near the end of November, I browsed realtor.cafor commercial properties for sale in Dundas. After 3 years of fruitless searching, I was not expecting to find anything this time. I was wrong! This building, currently being used as a kitchen and bath store, was for sale just steps from the heart of downtown Dundas.

Convinced that God was calling me to at least further investigate this opportunity, I looked at the property with a realtor and discovered that it was once a church that had been sold to the current owners in 1982. It had not changed much since its days as a church and could easily be re-converted back to its original purpose. The main auditorium could seat 150 people comfortably and the basement already has space suitable for a fellowship hall, classrooms and a nursery. I was dumbfounded. How was this possible?

My realtor strongly encouraged me to seek out investors so that we could put in an offer on the property. After hosting an emergency prayer meeting with the launch team to discern whether we should continue pursuing this, I did as I was told. Within two weeks, the financing had been secured. An official offer was accepted on Christmas Eve, of all days! The offer is conditional on the property being re-zoned to accommodate a place of worship, and we have until July 31 to obtain that rezoning.

The original plan was to look at purchasing a building after 5 years of worshipping in Dundas. As Proverbs 16:9 says, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps!”

 

Prayer Items

* The Re-zoning application: in order to achieve the re-zoning we’re after, we need to convince the city that our church would not disrupt traffic patterns and parking in the area surrounding the church. We have good people working on this for us, but we need the prayers of God’s people, too. Stories of churches being sold and converted into commercial properties are common today; a story of a former church being restored to its original purpose would speak volumes about God’s power at work in this community.* For an important meeting I have scheduled with Arlene Vanderbeek, City Councillor for Dundas, regarding the property and the prospect of rezoning it as a place of worship. Her support would be invaluable to the application process.

* For continued success in fundraising. Obviously, owning a building will have a significant impact on our budget!?

* For the commencement of small groups with the launch team. Pray that we would discern God’s vision for a gospel-centred church community in Dundas and seek to implement it for his glory, not ours.

* For the growing number of unchurched people our launch team has introduced to the prospect of a church where they can safely explore questions of faith. Pray that the Spirit would stir them to share with us their journey toward knowing Jesus as Saviour and Lord.

* For increased opportunities for me to introduce GVC to members of the Dundas community. Already some of my future neighbours have expressed interest in learning more about it.

* For the ability to maintain focus on all the responsibilities of church planting while trying to oversee the renovations of our home. I know now why most people get a General Contractor to oversee that kind of work! We are incredibly thankful for all the help we’ve received from friends and family committed to helping us complete this project.