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Fredericton Community Services Inc
Celebrating 25 Years of Service to our community
Pastor Ken Crawford, Founding Partner
God of the Impossible
After 30
days in my new district I knew we were in trouble. The church
had a beautiful facility that seated over 200 people, and about
35 in attendance. The church was also behind on their mortgage,
the fuel tank was empty and we had no money to fill it for the
winter. Our tiny school in the basement needed to be heated. It
comprised of Debbie, our teacher and three students, her younger
sister and her two daughters. Debbie was working for free to
keep the school open.
There are
times when there is nothing else to carry you but naked faith in
Divine Providence, so we began to pray. Every day at noon the
Elders came from work and gathered in my little office to
beseech the Lord of the harvest for answers we didn’t have. As
the first snows of November came, we pleaded with God for a
miracle.
Then one
day, Tony, our Head Elder, stated emphatically. “This is not
right, we may be in tough straights, but there are many in our
town who are struggling more than us. I really feel that we need
to offer something more for them.” After discussion and planning
it was felt that we should ask the church members to bring food
and old clothes every week, and we would began to help those in
need by starting a small clothing distribution room.
We
designated an unused room in the basement and advertised in the
local free weekly paper that we were offering service every
Thursday morning. An amazing thing happened. People began to
come and soon several members were involved in sorting cloths
and arranging hampers of food.
I still
don’t know how it happened but we were able to get through the
winter. Our school began to grow and another church member
decided to open a daycare in another room in the basement of the
church.
By spring
our little community service center had outgrown the basement.
Every Thursday morning there was a lineup of people down the
stars waiting access to the food and clothing bank.
It was the
first of May, as I recall, when we decided to step out in faith
again and test the Lord. Early on a Sunday morning, every able
bodied member met at the church and together we drove to Harvey
Station. Elwood Graham was a Lumberman and he had a number of
logs at his mill that he donated to our project if we would be
willing to saw them ourselves.
So a group
of novice lumberjacks spend the day at Elwood’s mill, sawing
logs into lumber. By the end of the day, we loaded those rough
cut planks and timber unto trailers, pickups and even on roof
racks of a car and headed back to town.
That
evening we laid the lumber out on the pavement in the form of a
building 24 by 40 ft. Then, together we fell on our knees
inside the square and prayed. “God of the Impossible, we have
done all that we can, now it’s your turn. We have no idea how to
continue, but you do. Please multiply our humble efforts and
grow a Community Service center for us.
It was our
annual ingathering time, and as a pastor, I was scheduled to
make the rounds of businesses to solicit donations for our
Community Service work. There had been little work to solicit
for, but now I was inspired. The first stop was a large lumber
mill not far from my house. As I explained to the owner, our
need for a building, he said. “I will donate all the lumber you
need, just make up a materials list and fax it to me.
Excited I
stopped at a local building store and told the owner what the
Lumber mill had offered. They donated insulation and sheetrock.
Another company donated the trusses and the shingles. As winter
progressed, we were able to complete each phase with the right
amount of material, just when it needed. There was never
abundance, nor were we ever short so that the work had to
stop. Tony, volunteered his time that first winter to oversee
the project and within six months, we had a completed building,
sitting in our parking lot, all donated materials. It was a
celebration to see how God had worked miracle after miracle. Our
school and day care had grown to the place where when we moved
out of the church, they were ready to occupy the space that was
vacated.
Since
then, God has grown that prayer food bank to the place where,
from a 2800 sq. ft. facility, it supplies a large region. It
distributes over one million dollars of food , clothing, school
supplies and Christmas toys each year. Its annual budget is in excess of 365,000.00 dollars.
God is truly God of the impossible.
Pastor Ken Crawford is
President of the Alaska Conference of Seventh day Adventists. In
addition to his busy work schedule he writes books, and articles
for various religious newsletters and magazines.
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