With (Post Advent 2013): God Is For You

Dear Otter Creek Family,

Below is an update from Wayne Tomlinson on behalf of the elders concerning the former Otter Creek Church facility on Granny White Pike. Please read this when you have the opportunity. Thank you for your continued, prayers, passion, and generosity. It's an honor to serve you.

Best,
Josh

From Wayne:

When I was a young boy, we sang a song in church titled "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" . . . tune my heart to sing thy praise. It was a favorite which was often sung. The second verse started with "Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help I've come." I sang the second verse for years without any idea what an Ebezener was. I was familiar with the first name of Charles Dickens Christmas character, Ebenezer Scrooge. I even knew of the small church near my grandparents farm called Ebenezer Baptist church. But I had no idea about the Ebenezer in the 2nd verse of the song.

I later learned that the Ebenezer of the song was a stone placed by Samuel to commemorate the blessing of God giving victory of the Israelites over the Philistines that stopped all battles between them for the lifetime of Samuel.

Today, we mark an Ebenezer for Otter Creek Church, a commemorative day that we give thanks to God for what He has done. God has blessed us to have a Facility which has allowed us to grow in number and in ministry. When we moved here (409 Franklin Road) in 2006, we purchased this facility for a extremely reasonable price and expanded it in 2010 for a cost less than budgeted. The unfulfilled piece in the plan was the sale of the property at Granny White. Although we have twice before thought we had a Buyer, it never worked out. I am happy to tell you today that we have a signed contract for the sale of our Granny White property.

The Strong Tower Bible Church, our current tenant, has agreed to purchase the property. The usual contingencies of inspection and financing are part of the agreement. If all goes as expected, the sale will close around the middle of February. Although we did not attain our full asking price, we will have sufficient proceeds to pay off all the debt on the Granny White property and bring our total debt to under four million dollars-a financial reality the MCC is agressively addressing. The burden of the carrying cost for the Granny White property will be removed from our shoulders.

We give thanks to God today for His blessing of this contract. We further pray that the sale will close after all the due diligence is completed by Strong Tower church.

Please join me in raising your hands in prayer as our Ebenezer for God's blessing to us.

In Christ,

Wayne Tomlinson