Miracle Family Temple

From the desk of our Senior Pastor (click here to view this in Tamil)

“Then he answered and spoke to me, saying, "This is the word of Yahweh to Zerubbabel, saying, 'Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says Yahweh of Armies.” Zechariah 4:6

At Miracle Family Temple, we love to worship the Lord. Every Sunday, as we stand in awe of the presence of our Creator, we are not limited to time. As the congregation praise and worship our Lord, for about an hour, God had touched and strengthened many. When we worship the Lord, very often at the end of the worship service, I would ask the members to pray for their needs. As I stand from the pulpit of our old church, I would see the building opposite to our church and the Lord will put a burden in my heart to pray for it. During that time, I had no knowledge of the details of the building. I would pray, “Lord please give this building to us so that we can grow.”

As the time went by, our congregation was growing and we had difficulty in accommodating everyone to our east location for a common service. Suddenly, to our amazement, we saw the real estate sign board showing that the building opposite to our church was for sale. Brother Kumar, one of our board members, was excited about this and called me to inform me about the sale of the building. I responded to him stating that we should put an offer for this property. It was agreed by the Board that we should make an offer and on the 23rd of January 2004, we submitted our offer for 1.65 million dollars. However, the owners of the building expected more money for this building and rejected our offer. We were very sad when we heard the news but, I encouraged our congregation to pray hard so that the Lord would give us a bigger place. When I was discouraged, God would always remind me of a prophesy, He once spoke to me through a Man of God. One day, I attended a meeting when an evangelist who came from India asked everyone to pray for their needs. At that time, I was earnestly praying for God to open up ways for ten thousand people (10,000) to attend our church. All of a sudden, the evangelist said “There is someone praying for ten thousand people and the Lord is going to fulfill your prayers.” As I sit back and think, I truly believe these are the beginning of the fulfillment of his prophesy.

Months went by and again I saw the real estate signboard in the opposite building. We were so happy to see that the building was again for sale. We contacted our real estate agent and the news he gave us momentarily shattered our hope. He said that this time they are calling a tender for three adjoining properties including 1100 Bellamy Road and tit will be given to the highest bidder. I was really sad at this time because we were clueless about the asking price. I prayed to God and He spoke to me very clearly to offer 3.8 million for all three properties. We offered, and when they short listed to three and then to two we were among them.

As I was praying one morning, the Lord spoke to me to offer, 4.2 million dollars for the next round of negotiation, and if we offer that price, the Vendor would sell this property to us. I told our leaders that the Lord had spoken to me very clearly about the price and informed the congregation about the price on the following Sunday. As the Lord spoke to me, we were asked by the Vendor to bring in the best offer and we submitted our offer as $4.2 Million dollars. To our surprise, we received a letter from the owner that they were willing to sell the 6.2 acres of land for 4.2 million dollars. We had many evangelists telling us when they visited our church that God was going to expand our ministry and we will be moving to a new location. One evangelist specifically told us at a camp meeting on August 2nd, 2004 that we will be moving to a larger property on August 2nd, 2005. As per prophesy, the Vendor had accepted our tender as the buyer of the three properties. There were times people wondered why we need to purchase three buildings, but God knew at that time, if we did not buy all three buildings, we will be struggling for finance. By the grace of God, we are almost finalizing the sale of one of the buildings to ease us of the financial hardship. We knew that the hand of God was with us to buy this land for His glory.

The Lord was good and he helped us to purchase this property and the adjoining two (2) properties. The Vendor agreed to sell this land with twenty percent (20 %) down payment. Also, the Vendor agreed to give us the eighty percent of the mortgage at prime plus one interest rate for twenty years. Since this property was not listed through MLS, we were able to secure financing for other two properties. I realized why God allowed these properties to be sold through tender than listing on MLS. Banks refused to finance but God opened up doors amazingly, to secure finance on these properties.

One real estate agent told us that it would take at least four (4) to six (6) months to sell our previous property and he valued the property at seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($750,000). However, God did a mighty miracle and enabled us to sell this property for 1.35 million within two (2) weeks. Our real estate agent was amazed how things were happening in favour of us. We were the first vendor to sell our property almost double the amount of the value in this area. If we wouldn’t have sold this property within the stipulated time and for the price, the purchase of the three new properties would have fell apart and we would have lost all our deposits.

When we made the offer, we had less than $50,000.00 dollars for all three buildings. However, God met the amount for our deposits in amazing ways. Thank God for Henry Chiu a Christian architect who helped us to put the vision God gave me for this property. God gave a plan and the layout of this building. The layout included another two sections, which could accommodate more than two hundred (200) people in each section. Pastor Lincoln who has rented one of the sections walked up to me and said “we have been suffering and praying in the present place for years for a place that could be called our church.” He said that God had answered their prayers. I realized that the Lord wanted to help them through us and the vision for this property came directly from heaven and belongs to the Lord. This property has a little chemical contamination at the back, and thank God for this outside underground contamination that helped the vendor to give us VTB for 1.9 million dollars and at prime plus one interest rate.

When we came into this building we were shocked to see the status of the building. The previous owners vacated this property two (2) years ago and the chemical spilled all over the place and it was like a haunted building. Thank God for our church members for their tireless efforts who demolished every wall inside the building. We saved minimum three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000) by demolishing this property by using volunteers. The whole thirty five thousand (35,000) square feet full of drywalls excluding the office area, thousands of electrical fittings and standpipe system was cut and it looked like a huge foot ball ground.

We realized that this project would cost at least couple of millions to hire a general contractor and prayed that God would give us wisdom to build this place. His ways are amazing and God brought in excellent people who worked in this place to fulfill God’s vision. I had an opportunity to interview a gentleman for the post of electrician and I thank God for bringing Ali as our electrical contractor. After seeing the electrical drawings, he said that he would do the job and would help the church. He quoted thirty thousand dollars ($30,000) for electrical and fire alarm system in forty thousand (40,000) square feet. Later, I met Fahaz, a fire alarm technician who was working in our premises. He said that Ali called him to do the job for this price and he told him that he is crazy to agree for this price and Ali replied to him stating that it is a church and that he wanted to help them. My architect told me that to install a Fire alarm system for this size of a property would cost more than thirty five thousand dollars

($35,000). God has spoken to many to complete this project at a very low cost.

A major supplier of drywall and building supplies gave us credit to buy supplies at discounted price. The Independent Electric, a major electrical supplier agreed to give us credit and supplies at contactor’s price. Thank God for His mercy. When we needed additional fund of five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) to fund this project, the lender strictly told us that he can not give more than three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000) with the security we provided. However, when the money was advanced, to our amazement, he gave us five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) which even shocked the broker.

We thank God for Tony who worked for almost half the plumber’s salary. We hired him to do the entire plumbing job and he passed the discount he received from the supplier named “Wolsely” to the church. As such, we were able to save thousands of dollars in our plumbing job. When we were deciding the place for the baptismal tank, we had many options for the location. Finally, when we decided on a spot, we were shocked to see, that under the concrete, was a buried pipe at the exact location which nobody was aware or used.

Many volunteers from the church helped us save many thousands of dollars. Br. Meswin for the past few months left his usual job and volunteered his hours in the church project to save thousands of dollars. Many of our believers carried the vision and worked tirelessly long hours daily to complete this project. If I start to name each one of them, this book won’t be enough and I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart. Thank God for our believers who had trusted us and loaned nearly four hundred thousand dollars ($400,000) for this project. I could write many pages and pages of miracles happened in order to build this project.

I want to give glory and thanks to the one who trusted the board and me to accomplish this great work for God. It is said in the Bible, that when one soul repents and accepts Jesus, there is great joy in heaven. Building is nothing, compared to bringing lost souls around us to the kingdom of God. My desire is to see many thousands saved before my Lord returns to this earth. I also want to take this opportunity to thank the Assistant Pastors, Cell Leaders who work tirelessly to reach out to the lost, Associate Leaders, Spiritual Parents and all those who help in the various ministries. I believe that all the believers in our Worship Centres are treasures given by God. It has been a great twelve years and let God shower His blessings upon each one of them.

Praise God for His goodness! All glory and Honor belongs to Him alone!

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