Ingredients of a Miracle
A sampling of the amazing things God did to built this house of worship
Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Psalm 127:1
God led a tiny band of believers at the newly formed Evergreen Community Church to come up with $4,500 to purchase this property and the building on it in 1948. This amount was 11 times their annual giving and represented an amazing act of faithful obedience. They truly left a legacy of faith for us to follow. God held the building together since its construction in 1912. By 2007, the foundation was now soft, the wiring and plumbing substandard and the access had significant limitations. Yet God used it to accomplish a great deal of kingdom work in the previous 70 years. God granted amazing unity within the church body throughout the project development phase. There was a beautiful trust relationship between the leadership and the membership. God led the City of Vancouver to be very accommodating to our unique needs, seen most prominently in being allowed to continue meeting in our old building while constructing the new one. Other major blessings included not being required to obtain a conditional use permit, a major cost-saving solution to our fire hydrant requirements, and not having to perform a major traffic modification at the intersection of 97th and Mill Plain. God had his hand of protection on us as we safely cleared the site of 10 large trees and two small buildings. God’s grace was also seen in his provision of skilled people and the right equipment for this work. God provided the money necessary to bring this project to the point we are now at. The total project cost is nearly $3 million and we knew we had to raise $1 million to even begin. Fundraising consultants said that $650,000 was about the most we could expect to raise given the size of our congregation and annual budget. But we passed the $1 million mark by August 2007 and by September of 2008 God brought in over $1.25 million. Miraculous provision! God helped our church body remember the point of it all. The point is to have a growing relationship with the Savior Jesus Christ and to invite others to have the same. Our prayer is that everything that happens in this new building would help accomplish that purpose.
Stay tuned for continued ingredients of a miracle in Phase 2 of our building project, beginning in 2022.