Up in smoke...poof...

That's what happened today.  Our church mortgage went up in smoke but not before a great meal together, complete with cabbage rolls, perogies, turkey, stuffing and all that goes with it.  And not before a PowerPoint presentation with pictures of the good old days....30 years ago, plus a message from Pastor Dan and Dawn Fullerton who initiated the building program back in 1980.  At one point, I had thought I was on that Building Committee but it was Ken who was on it....I was on the Fund Raising Committee.  I'm sure it must have been just as much work fund raising because I remember being extremely busy during that time.

 The church was built pretty much by volunteers in the congregation, so we were very fortunate to have qualified and gifted people to do the work. I remember days and days and evenings and weekends of staining and painting and sanding and sweeping....just a whole bunch of hard, manual labour. The results are still evident today sitting on the corner of 15th Street and 15th Avenue East. Oh, we've repainted, put new carpet, fixed various things and put a huge new cement pad at the back door...and the trees are now all grown and lovely. It's the same building alright. The people in it are different though. We've all aged...:) Not only that, there has been much spiritual growth, I think. We have begun to see things more from God's perspective, rather than our own. We've begun to be a bit more dependent on God for his provision, for his guidance. We've become less indepenent, I suppose. But to think that this little band of God's people have raised enough money over these past 30 years to pay for the building PLUS give towards various missions projects, globally and in our own neighborhood shows where we, as a church, have put our financial priorities. As I say, God has been faithful as we have put our total trust in His provision.


http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/drdaniel.fullerton this page has a greeting to all of us from Pastor Dan and Dawn.


And....here are a few pictures of our time together today...

Now we have not only our own children attending

but also ourgrand children and great grand children.

Very few of these folks were at Gateway in 1980.

Charlie continues to be of great service in the church

with his kind spirit and electrician skills.

Birdie, second from left, talked a bit about how our church evolved through

the years.  At one point, there were 3 Covenant churches in P.A., one being

at the Bible College, another in Nordale across the river and the other

on 12th Avenue and 1st Street East.  We moved to our new 15th & 15th building

on Palm Sunday, 1981...the same day our old church building sold.

"The Burning Ceremony" with 4 of the original Building Committee members:

Grace McKenzie, Mary Jane and Tom Graham and my man, Ken.

New pastors, Stacia and Seth chat with Ken...the new and the old.

 It was a good but busy day and new memories were made in the midst of meeting for this special event.