Here's a link to new pics of the Renovation work done in October/November, on our Facebook page.
God is our provider. And sometimes he provides with a surprise that you never saw coming.
Recently, we've been asking a few Christian businessmen to consider loaning us a substantial amount of money to help us finish the building renovation. We planned to pay the loan back in a few years with a bank mortgage once rental income begins. After talking, praying, and seeing the building and meeting our people, their was a decision between the two of them to give a total of
$150,000.
On top of their generosity, they decided to help us fundraise, the goal being a matching amount of another $150,000. Did we see it coming? No. Are we surprised that God could do it? No. That He would? Yes. Why would God favor us so? For his purposes in the lives of untold students and neighbors who will find their way into Living Hope Church, and find that Christ Jesus is our living hope.
With this generous donation, we'll be able to finish the first floor church space and an apartment to begin renting. With $60,000 more, we can finish a second apartment and really settle in without being strapped with debt. Thank you God and thank you to our brothers who have given so faithfully, and to all who have helped this project with sacrificial help in time, talent, and financial gifts.
Our project is big--renovate this 11,000 square foot building for kingdom purposes. Our faith is big, and our hearts full of thanks for all the help so far. Our God is bigger still, overseeing and ordering all these things for our good and His glory in this City.
Prayer request for Vision 2020 and History has been made!
Written by Brad Beier
Good news (history has been made!) on the renovation front: we have bathroom walls framed up!
It's not only our first really noticeably positive change to the building (other than just patching or fixing existing problems), but bathroom walls are one of those must-haves for everyone appreciates the privacy that this will afford them! What will we think of next?
Also, please be praying this week as our two Christian businessmen friends assess the building Vision and decide how they might be able to help with financing the completion (i.e., majority) of the project!
Big week for Vision 2020 - big prayers requested!
Written by Administrator
Dear friends and family, those who are with us in Chicago and far away,
This is a very big week for Living Hope Church, as we will send out two applications, like messages in a bottle on the tides of God's good providence, and pray for a favorable result.
1) Wednesday, our architects will submit drawings to the City of Chicago for construction permits. Along with that application, we're requesting to have the $5000 or so permit fee waived, since we're a not-for-profit.
2) Early in the week, I will submit the application for the bank loan to Chicago Investment Corporation for a $400,000 renovation loan
Both applications take about 60 days to be processed and for a decision to be made.
We have not yet arrived! Please partner with us in these two things:
1) Please pray for these applications that God would continue to show us grace and kindness to continue to open doors for this project to continue
2) Please consider giving towards Vision 2020 or fulfilling your pledge if you have not yet done so. Please pass this request on to your own network of people who love God's name and supporting His work, yet may not yet know about this work in Chicago!
Please read below "The remaining need." The mailing address:
Vision 2020
c/o Shannon Beier
6352 S Ingleside Ave, #2
Chicago, IL 60637.
Progress
We are relying heavily on free labor (we've done all the clean-up and demo with amazing help from local and out-of-state volunteers, and we're 90% finished--thank you everyone! We are planning to use volunteers for significant portions of the renovation itself, in addition to the licensed professionals who will do the major systems).
Both our church members, volunteers, and our local neighbors who find out about the church are very excited to see first hand the transformation taking place and what good things are just beginning in this work of God's Kingdom. Several people have said, "This is a God-sized task," and it is true--but with the help of so many brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ, an overwhelming task is becoming a reality.
A local photojournalist is creating a documentary about abandoned buildings in our Woodlawn neighborhood, and she is filming our church and the rehab work on the building as one of the featured stories of renewal.
We have hired our General Contractor, a Christian man who has worked with several other churches and ministries that we know of, and the new roof and associated brickwork is underway (thanks to a wonderful gift of $18,000 from Naperville PCA church), so that we can begin to dry out the interior that gets wet every time rain falls.
God's goodness through your generosity: We've received $234,000 already in gifts and loans. For example: Several of our partners have given $10,000 each (including two of our University alumni). Several families in our church have made significant pledges over the next few years. Mission to North America has given us an interest-free loan of $80,000. A few parents of some of our students have begun to contribute. Plains PCA church has agreed to guarantee the $80,000 loan, and a faithful Christian businessman. A brother from PA donated his time to take all the as-built measurements and enter the data into architectural software to save us thousands of dollars.
Along with all the wonderful gifts, as well as our best efforts to save money, recapture money (selling all the metal in the building for scrap has raised about $1000!), and be creatively good stewards of God's gifts,
The remaining need
Our financial projections (limited by our own finite human vision) indicate that to complete the project, we still need about $20,000 to $30,000 in gifts to not bite off more bank loan than we can repay.
Two weeks ago, all the numbers looked like they added up so that any future donations would just reduce loan amount needed, but a few unexpected expenses we'll face in construction that make things tighter for us (mostly some City of Chicago code issues and some previous permit violations incurred on our building that the previous owner, one of those unwanted gifts that you can't really return).
We are grateful for all the gifts so far, and are doing our very best to be faithful stewards of God's grace through you, and we trust that as He has, He will continue to provide.
Finally, see for yourself:
1) You can see a video about the Vision 2020 project at http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Yours in wholehearted thanks and rejoicing,
Pastor Brad
Dear brothers and sisters,
It is with shock, pain, and deep sadness that I write to tell you that Bobby Netzband has left this world to go to be with our Father.
I received a call at midnight from Steve, one of Bobby's close friends, to tell me that tonight at 9:30pm, Bobby was driving home from Chicago with his two sons Bobby Jr. and Eric, when he had a diabetic-related issue that caused him to become unresponsive. His car ran off the road into a creek, and though his two boys were able to get out of the car, they could not pull their father out as water filled the car.
Bobby's wife Kelly is pregnant with their seventh child who is due in September. Of course, she is living in a place of deep shock and unbelief and crying out to God for help and answers. Please cry out with her for mercy and God's help to overshadow and stabilize the family in the loss of their wonderful father and husband, our dear brother and friend.
I will write again when funeral arrangements are made, and Kelly desires to have the funeral in Chicago. Until then, we should all consider helping the family in whatever way we can, but in particular, financially, as Kelly told me tonight that Bobby had a life insurance policy that required a three year wait. I don't fully understand if that means no payments will be made to help with the funeral, but I assured her that the Body of Christ would gladly provide for the funeral expenses, and I'll find out more details tomorrow.
Bobby and Kelly are members of our church and Bobby was under the care of the Chicago Metro Presbytery. He planted Amazing Grace Church in Watseka, IL and the church was excited about a new building in which the church was meeting and gearing up for Easter Sunday. Bobby was a student of mine at City Seminary, Chicago, where he loved to learn and take what he learned from the Scriptures to his people in application and encouragement.
Bobby's life was one defined by grace and he loved to preach about the grace of Christ to anyone and everyone; his heart was full of compassion for the hurting, and I am comforted as I hope that we all will be that God's heart of grace and mercy is wide open to receive Bobby, his beloved son, as Bobby enters into his rest and into fullness of joy in God's presence.
In the meanwhile, let's pray often and with sincere prayers for Kelly and their children and for the members of Amazing Grace Church who will have to say goodbye to this wonderful man.
Please especially pray for Bobby Jr. and Eric, who have as the last memory of their father this tragic night that they experienced first-hand.
I know that we are all going to be in a place of pain and sadness, and let's remember the words of Jesus in John 16 who himself died and now lives forever to intercede for us,"...so that you may have peace: In this life you will have trouble, but take heart--I have overcome the world." and as Psalm 56 reminds us, God records our laments and collects our tears in a bottle as a picture of his Fatherly compassion and tender help. There won't be a tear that falls or a prayer that rises from the hearts of God's people who ask, "Why?" or "Where are you?" or "How can we go on?" that God won't see and touch and one day heal.
Your brother in this living hope,
Brad
Thank you for your prayers and encouragement in the last 36 hours that rushed towards our zoning hearing with the City this morning at 9am. We were seeking a special use approval for the property at 6414 S Cottage Grove in Chicago without changing zoning. From noon on Wednesday till early Friday morning, my world was a torrent of emails, phone calls, humble prayers and reading many Psalms with the realization that I was clinging to mercy in a very tangible way. Many people helped to fill in gaps of important information that City Hall apparently left out in the application and preparation process, but I went before the Zoning Board this morning with a settled conviction that God rules and is always good to His people, no matter how difficult things appear or actually become. In a great anti-climax, the Zoning Board of Appeals said, "Call back Tuesday for the decision." That's the standard answer that everyone apparently hears. So we wait, but with hope. The hearing had a very positive tone, especially compared to a few hearings that preceded ours. I'm amazed that in God's providence, I received a phone call from City Hall on Wednesday afternoon during presbytery that was more or less a mistake, but from that call I learned a very important piece of information--we needed an expert witness to speak on our behalf--something I had no idea that we needed until that conversation. With only 36 hours notice, an appraiser rearranged his schedule and came to the hearing and testified before the Board to the goodness of our church property plans. The hearing immediately before ours was the only other church property being heard today, but it was postponed till next month simply because they did not have an expert witness (like an appraiser) to speak on their behalf. One of our big concerns was whether we would have to meet City requirements for parking by buying or leasing a lot, an extra expense that we neither needed practically nor could afford realistically. That parking issue was addressed and dismissed quickly, so that seems to be a non-issue now. The Board told me that that "I should fill out one more bit of paperwork on behalf of the church, which I completed later in the day and returned to City Hall between my other meetings. Finally, the Board said that IF they approve our request, it would probably be provisional, provided that our architectural drawings, when completed, meet City code. The drawings we submitted for today's hearing were amateur drafts that I threw together one week this summer with a one-week free trial version of an on-line design software. The architect on the Zoning Board thought my draft was pretty snazzy, though she had to point out that it wasn't quite up to code. In any case, we'll hire a professional architect and I'll stick to preaching. Overall, I have a sense that things went well, but please continue to pray on through Tuesday for this, the biggest hurdle that we've faced so far. Resting in God's good grace, Pastor Brad