Please Continue to Pray!

I went and saw a space that's for rent. Let me tell you the story. Back when we first made the commitment to come to Anchorage I put my resume on a website that's free to potential employees but costs employers to receive them. A man that owns the Sunshine Plaza downtown and now many other properties in town contacted me. I interviewed over the phone with him during my lunch break. He offered me a management position, but I told him I needed to pray about it. Then the newspaper offered me a job while I was at the assembly. This man counter offered but for many reasons I just didn't feel like that was the direction I was suppose to go (and I still feel good in that). After I was on the job for a few months he called me again to see if I was satisfied at the paper and I assured him I was. Then last winter he called again. He had purchased more property and wanted to talk to me. Jody went with me as he wanted me to meet him at his house. Mind you this man is Asian, lives in Hawaii, has a condo and lots of property here in Alaska, but his wife had recently passed away. He once again wanted me to come and work for him. I basically told him I wanted to meet with his son as he was getting up there in years and his son was doing a lot of the managing of his properties and I would want to be sure he wanted me also before I gave up a good job. He understood and said he would set something up. His secretary called me on two occasions and said that they still wanted to get together but they had been really busy. Then last week the man calls again. Really wanting to get a hold of me. I called him, his first question, was do you still have a job at the newspaper as he saw the article saying ADN laid off 35people. After I assured him I still had a job. He went on to share that he was desperately need of help. I told him could possibly help him temporarily part-time. Then I proceeded to ask him if he had property that our church may rent. Remember, I've met with this man on 3 occasions, spoke with him numerous times on the phone. One of the things that he has brought up in every meeting is the fact that we were willing to leave the lower 48 and come up here to work for God. So he proceeded to tell me he did and he would work with us. He told me where the building was so I could go look at it. I drove down after work on Thursday and then called him Friday and met with him today at noon.

The building is on Northern Lights just across from Blockbuster. There are two spaces available. One 700 sq ft and one 1073 sq ft. They will fix them to our needs. Meaning with 2 - 3/4 walls so that we can have Sunday School rooms. There is so much potential for the larger room. It's in a complex with other business but down a hall with only the empty space at this time. He usually charges $1.65 a sq ft which is avg from what I've seen. But he would give it to us for $1/sq ft includes all utilities. There's bathrooms right outside the door of the space we would have. We would have a sign put on the outside of the building. We would have to make signs to put down the various halls so people would know where to find us. When I left him this morning, I was sick to my stomach. I have felt all along that some how God had placed this man in my life for the sake of the church finding a building. And then when he kept popping up...I knew I had to approach him on it.

So why was I sick to my stomach? Because it's going to take all of us stepping out in faith to make the commitment to make those payments. I am confident that it's time that these precious people do that. SO please continue to pray that we all come together in unity with financial commitment from all to make this happen if it's God's will.

Oh about the job. His accountant has been diagnosed with cancer. They think they have caught it early enough but she's going through chemo and can't put in the numbers that she has in the past during tourist season. So they actually are looking for another full time accountant but has asked if I (and I mentioned Jenna could possibly help) could give 12-16 hours a week doing receivables, collections and payable. I told him I would do what I could. His son is suppose to call me. He would pay me a consultant fee, not as employee, being I'm only temporary. If everything comes together I would use this toward the church.

So please, please, please pray. I don't know how much time we have to make the decision but God knows and can pull it all together. We NEED a bigger space. That it is. We could have dinners there, etc.
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