Announcement in Progress!
God reminds me that He restores everyday when I work at 703*. Five years ago we walked by this house, burned out and boarded up. I stood on the sidewalk, compelled to pray for God to breathe new life and purpose into these walls. I could not have known that our ministry and interns would move in 3 years later.
Our prayers - in a way I can hardly venture to understand- participated in a supernatural way with what God was already doing and through the people who did fix up, sell, and purchase this property. I come to work everyday in answered prayer. I sit at a table in a kitchen that was daunting to restore. But someone did it. And we received it.
Kitsap House keeps replaying the motif of moving and restoring. We have worshiped in 10 locations in 5 years. Daily, God has our small community spread out living and working from Tacoma to Bremerton. We participate with God as he works shalom- wholeness, well-being and peace- through our individual work and neighborhoods.
Our Session has agreed that God is opening doors for us to bring shalom to our neighborhood in a corporate way in the center of Port Orchard while simultaneously providing a place for us to put down roots as a worshiping community.
We are pursuing a restoration project. Where it is most obviously a boarded up building, we see a potential living parable of the restoration God brings.
There is a building on Mitchell Ave that is currently boarded up and being used for storage. It was once a place for gathering, feasts, and community service. We hope to restore it for the sake of the neighborhood and in celebration of our God, the God who is the God who sees, the God who restores, the God of resurrection power and abundant life.
The neighborhood needs this building to have new life, yes. At the same time we have a call as those who know the power of Jesus to address the relational, spiritual, mental, and emotional needs for shalom. By giving this building new life, we will walk into hope restored.
Here are the pertinent details to be praying about at this point:
TIMELINE: a year for feasibility followed by at least a year of construction
Feasibility 1: CONSTRUCTION Determining with the city and contractors if the permits and structure are permissible for restoring the building to its original purposes
Feasibility 2: PARTNERSHIP Learning the unique needs of this neighborhood and connecting with partners who can inhabit the building meaningfully with and for the neighbors throughout the week
Feasibility 3: FINANCIAL Acquiring the means to purchase and restore the building through donations, grants and partnership
Jump in - even now in the feasibility stretch!
PRAY with us over 1153 Mitchell Ave. Drive by. Meet up with me at the building to pray Thursday, October 10th at 2:30pm (note: we will not be going inside and bathrooms are not available.) Let us know how God is speaking to you. Psalm 84 is a great starting place for prayer.
SKILLS if you have skills by way of any of those 3 points of feasibility, please connect with us! Construction: Rod Tayet or Bert Miner; Partnership and Financial: Pastor Megan
LOVE THE NEIGHBORHOOD Intentionally frequent gyms, sporting events, stores, schools, sidewalks, and services in the neighborhood.
ROCK THIS SWEATSHIRT We are even going to sport some new neighborhood swag to inspire curiosity and hope about how God is leading with this project. Our Port Orchard sweatshirts already get a lot of people talking. We pray this one will too as we spread the word of our intention to, “Walk into Hope Restored.” Support the start up costs of this project by pre-ordering this month: t-shirts, crew necks and hoodies!
Pastor Megan
*703 is our shorthand for 703 Kitsap Street, a home Kitsap House rents in downtown Port Orchard where young adults reside and where a lot of our midweek ministry happens.
