The members and friends of the Keilor Park Church need your help.
Our church building is now over 45 years old. It was completed in 1972 with volunteer labour as a concrete block structure. Later, some other additions were made to the back. Today we have a small kitchen, cramped dining area, ageing toilets and a makeshift second dining area in a shed which doubles as a Children’s Sabbath School room.
There are some maintenance items that are due, such as new gutters and fascia, painting and some repairs. Toilets need updating, and the mother’s room needs further work. Most serious of all, in recent years the foundation around the sanctuary has been settling, and it has come to light that the wall and roof structure were not properly constructed to withstand shifting of the foundation. This would be a difficult and costly repair.
Many different ideas have been carefully considered about how to update and freshen up our church building and rectify the problems that exist. In the end, the church has finally come to the conclusion that rebuilding will be the best, simplest and most cost-effective solution.
A set of plans has been drawn up and approved by the church membership. The rebuilding will take place in two stages. First, we will demolish the kitchen, toilets and shed. We will then build a new structure which will include toilets, classrooms and a dining area. After this is finished, we will then demolish the sanctuary area, and temporarily meet in the new dining hall while finishing the construction of the new sanctuary.
The plans are not extravagant, and we have kept economy, simplicity and ease of building in mind. We plan to use volunteer labour for essentially everything, and we will be spending money for materials and statutory fees only. We will need a modest $250,000 to complete this project.
So far, we have raised $120,795 in donations. We also have applied for a General Conference First Sabbath Offering appeal which we hope will bring in about $50,000. The Australasian Union Conference has agreed to advance us this amount up front as a loan, which will be repaid when that offering is collected. This leaves us with a deficit of $80,000, which we are now fundraising for.
This is where you can help! A donation of any amount will be of assistance to help us to buy concrete, steel, timber and plaster to rebuild this house for the worship of God.
The plan is for a special offering to be collected at all local churches on Sabbath, 19th August,at the end of the Divine Service.
Thank you and may God richly bless you!
Members of the Keilor Park Church, Victoria