Daytona Beach, FL >> After three hurricanes delayed their progress, Sovereign Grace Church of Daytona Beach has almost finished their new building. Senior pastor Dan Walsh sent us the story, with photos.
We're in the home stretch of our building project, begun almost 7 years ago with the purchase of 6.4 acres of land, just west of town. After paying off our land and finalizing our building plans, we broke ground in April 2003. We were supposed to move in 9 months later. Over 2 years have gone by, and we're still not quite there but, as I said, the day is finally within sight.
Some of the delays were just the typical problems any commercial project faces, but 3 hurricanes hit our area this time last year and complicated things bigtime. Damages to the building were minimal, except our bell tower, which Charley completely destroyed. Our new, redesigned bell tower withstood Frances and Jeanne just fine. But for months after the hurricane, most of the sub-contractors working on our building were pulled away doing hurricane repair work. It seemed like forever to get them to come back and begin on our building again.
One of the blessings during this time has been the faithfulness of the church's giving. They have remained faithful throughout this ordeal, and the delays have actually allowed us to raise additional income for some of the unexpected expenses we didn't foresee when we first began the project. At present, we are finalizing the few remaining details and getting ready to apply for our certificate of occupancy. We hope to move in by the end of October. In early November we will celebrate our 20th anniversary as a church, so we're going to combine these two events into one big celebration. Some of the pastors in our sister churches in Orlando and Charlotte, who have gone through all this themselves, have helped us formulate our Grand Opening plans to make the most of this unique opportunity to reach our area with the gospel.
You can see more pictures at the church's New Building Update web page.
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