EXACTLY one year ago, and with few funds in the bank, the Lutheran Church congregation in Richards Bay set out to build an ambitious 500-seater place of worship.
That step of faith has been richly rewarded and the 180 member congregation is almost ready to take occupation of its new spiritual home in Birdswood.
‘It is amazing to see what happens when God unites the right people at the right time,’ said Pastor Stephan Gensicke.
‘Being cash-strapped, we should have stopped building after the roof was constructed to start fund-raising again.
‘But thanks to our wonderful builders, who pledged to continue even though our funds were depleted, we are nearly finished.
‘In this day and age where everyone is only concentrating on money and profit margins, we found remarkable people who weren’t concerned about their money. Instead, they pushed us into completion.
‘Our church is virtually finished. We only need to put carpets inside and then we will be ready to move in.
‘We’ve already celebrated several services on special occasions and are planning to officially dedicate our church next year.’
Free of charge
Pastor Gensicke paid special tribute to the prime movers of the project:
‘Rob Shepherd from Unicorn/Sholoza who built our roof and steel structure encouraged us and kept a pledge to suspend indefinitely a large chunk of his money, so we could continue.
‘Rob took over the supervision of the construction, free of charge.
‘James Millican from Genesis Building Contractors took on the job, even though we were a couple hundred thousand rand short, while Harry Nel from Specialist Projects donated all whirly birds and the seamless gutters.
‘Rocky Chetty of Baycity Aluminium, a direct neighbour of our church, installed doors and windows at cost price or lower, compared to the other quotes we had.
‘Last but not least, Dumisani Mathe from Daily double trading 315 cc wanted to help and ended up painting our church and installing inside doors for free.
‘Amazingly. when the last touch-ups were done, through the grace of God, we were able to pay all invoices.’
