As you may know, Pastor Frank and I have been ministering in a poor, crime-ridden area of Atlanta for almost ten years. Throughout that time, I have been writing articles to send to people and churches who are interested in this ministry, who pray for it and, in some cases, support it financially. I have shared stories about life in “the Bluff”, and I have tried to keep everyone updated with our activities and progress (in spite of several months offline recently due to malicious hacking).
In all these years, by means of your faithful giving, the Lord has met all of our needs. Thus, we have never made a direct financial appeal to our friends and supporters. However, now, the time has come, and I pray that you will carefully and prayerfully consider the following appeal.
As reported in my most recent Penny’s Pen, following months of effort to find a new location when the lease on our previous building expired, we were eventually led to a building which had been built as a broom factory, but has been used as a church for twenty years. The congregation which owns the building is elderly and is planning to dissolve in the near future. The property, which is in a prime location, has been appraised at $250,000, but we have an informal agreement to purchase it at $200,000. However, unless we exercise that option when the lease expires at the end of March 2020, chances are good that the property will be sold out from underneath us.
At the moment we have about $20,000 in the building fund, either in hand or pledged by the end of the year. We need to raise at least another $30,000 in the next three months, in order to be in a good position to be approved for a loan from our denominational Trustees of Synod.
We have three requests of you: PRAY; GIVE; SPREAD THE WORD.
First, please do PRAY. Looking back over the last ten years, we can see how the Lord has directed our paths every step of the way. And we also know that, without his leading and guiding hand, the advance of the ministry would not have been possible. Looking to the future, we need to spend much time on our knees.
Secondly, please GIVE. No gift is too small. (For that matter, no gift is too large, either!) Given the urgency of the situation, we are hoping that there will be churches or individuals willing to give special, one-time gifts of maybe $500, $1000 or more. But we would gratefully receive more modest amounts, perhaps $10, $20 or $50 on a regular, on-going basis. Please be assured that whatever you give will be greatly appreciated.
(It has been suggested that giving a donation in the name of somebody who already has everything is a great idea for the holidays!)
Thirdly, please SPREAD THE WORD about this unique ministry in the heart of Atlanta. In addition to “liking” our Facebook page, you can also refer family and friends to it, where they can watch a short video. You can also refer them to our website (atlanta-rpc.org) which contains much information about our history and vision. You can even spread the news in the old-fashioned way, by word of mouth, and encourage friends, family, and groups to adopt us for their own giving.
There are more than 500 people on this email list—if everyone on the list forwarded this information to just ten others, and everyone of them donated just $10 each, we would raise $50,000 just like that!
Some of you have been readers of “Penny’s Pen” for about a decade—that is, since our ministry to “the Bluff” began in 2010. Some of you have only recently heard about us. But whether a long-time reader or a recent one, we trust that you have come to appreciate our work among “the least of these” in Atlanta, and would want to give generously to help us to plant a permanent foothold there.
As our Lord said to the apostle Paul, speaking of wicked Corinth, “I have much people in this city”. Please help us to purchase this building so that we have a stable situation from which to continue to bring the light of the gospel to another wicked city, Atlanta, which is in such desperate need of that light.
Thank you.
“Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it”. Psalm 127:1
P.S. There are three ways to donate:
Via a crowd-funding website (Click here)
Via PayPal: Click on the Donate button on our website home page (atlanta-rpc.org)
Via check: mail a check, payable to Atlanta RPC, to 5830 Millstone Drive, Cumming, GA 30028