David Reddish from Lexington, KY submitted the following account of an opportunity that the Lord provided for them as a church.
A quick conversation, a night of prayer and three months of teaching equals:
11,000 square feet of opportunity and not one penny spent.
About 18 months ago I was driving through the neighborhood near our building and noticed some adults doing outdoor activities with children in an apartment complex. I had a sense that this was connected with the Kingdom in some way so I stopped and introduced myself to the adults. I found the leader (Kelli) and we talked a bit about her vision to reach out to the children and teens in this area. She had started doing some games, art/crafts and tutoring.
About six months later she came to our Wednesday small group that was meeting at our building. We had been meeting there to pray for outreach opportunities, evangelism and ways that we could go beyond our size and our building to make an impact for the Kingdom. We prayed for her, had several prophetic words and a lot of sharing. She left very excited and built up in her faith.
I contacted her and invited her to come to our Sunday celebration and share her vision and where things were in its fulfillment. She came (about 6 months ago) and did a great job sharing her heart. Then in November she came by the Wednesday group again. She shared that God had given her a building that formerly housed several businesses in the neighborhood area about 5 blocks from our church building. It was 11,000 square feet. She said that it was all because of our prayer time a few months prior.
In the mean time the Lord had given me two words; one was on Open doors in the house of the Lord and the other was on new windows in the house of the Lord. He was telling us to look out the windows and see as He sees and dream with Him, begin to shape our perspective and outlook on life and our familiar world in new ways.Kelli and her husband Neal have started a small BBQ business and were funneling those funds into the outreach dream. The next week we moved our meeting to their BBQ restaurant (Neal’s Smokebox) to support them. She then took us over to the outreach center building for a tour and to pray. While we were there she said since we were “responsible” for the blessing that she wanted to bless us and gave us an office space in the building so we can have a presence there and a free hand to help her work or start something of our own. They have set up space for computer training, sewing and quilting, tutoring, a sound studio, an art room, a multipurpose room with a stage and about eight office spaces. Three of the offices will be for the local police as they seek to have a presence and to build community goodwill and one is ours. It is pretty full of possibilities!
This past MLK Day she invited us to the building to celebrate their getting the Certificate of Occupancy and for me to pray dedicating the building to the Lord and His work there. We are looking forward to new opportunities this spring and summer in answer to our prayers and the prophetic word of the Lord.