I sensed the Lord speaking to me that I needed to go ahead and confirm with Victor.  I knew he had given us his best price on construction and we needed to make a deal.  I went back in the building, climbed up the ladder to the unfinished second story and said, “Victor, I believe that you have given us your best price and this building would work really well for our church.  I do need to go back to our guys, but you and I are the key influencers here and I want to go ahead and make a deal with you and shake on it.” We did.  He seemed pleased.  I was too.

I went back to our congregation the next weekend and showed pictures of the building for the first time.

 The buzz started.  I could sense in our church a very positive vibe about the possibilities.  I told them that we needed to go ahead and raise the money for this.  We didn’t have time to waste since the RAVE was being sold and our new lease was starting in November.  I reported that we needed to raise $45,000 and that we would have a miracle offering and commitment day the next Sunday (September 18, 2011).  One young couple had already given me a check for $2,000.  They met me in the hall after service the previous week and said, “we want to give to this building project, God has been so good to us.”  This is a couple with many kids and the husband had been out of work for 2 years until recently.  I knew this was a HUGE sacrifice for them.

Then, after service, I got a call from one of our couples and the wife said, “Stephen, my husband and I decided to take care of the flooring.”  Wow!  I was blown away!  Later that week, I would get other calls.  My mom and my aunt gave $2,000 each.  One of the leaders from Stadia came to me and said, “my wife and I want to give.  We believe in you and your mission at Axis.”  He gave me a $1,000 check.  Another couple who is brand new to Axis, texted to say they were in for $3,000.  Another couple emailed and said “we will do the coffee area tables and stools.”

That next Sunday, I explained we were going to take this miracle offering and commitments and the goal was $45,000.  We prayed.  We collected the offering and commitments early in the service.  When Scott brought the paper up to me at the end of the service, I looked down at the total and was thrilled.  We had a song up coming in the service so I didn’t tell everyone then.  After the song I got up and announced the total.  ”Axis, I shared with you we needed to raise $45,000, but today we have offering and commitments of $56,000.”  (I actually announced $59,000 but later we realized we had double counted one of the checks).  The church erupted in applause!