By Pastor Kevin Serviss – First Baptist, Sudbury
This past year has had its emotional ups and downs at First Baptist in Sudbury. Even though ministry has been challenging, things have happened to prove to us that God is watching over us and is faithful!
In my first year of full-time ministry in Sudbury (2019), another nearby church, First Baptist in Capreol, about 30 minutes away, came to us requesting help. It is a 100-year-old church, like us, but with time has suffered decline and was in danger of closing. They are now only comprised of a few faithful members. To make a long story short, God miraculously provided us with new members who had the technical ability to bring a livestream service to them and CBOQ provided us with a grant. As a result, we have been able to provide a service for them on Sunday mornings which we are still currently doing.
In March of last year (2020), like most churches in our province, we experienced the reality of services suspended for 13 consecutive weeks due to the Covid situation. Yet, because God had opened a door for us to produce a livestream feed, we were in a great position to bring a video service into both congregation’s homes on Sunday mornings. Thank you, Lord!
But the greatest miracle of this whole season just occurred in the past month. One of the biggest challenges for our church in Sudbury has been a leaking roof. It is a flat roof which has needed replacing for some time. At a board meeting a couple of months ago, we reviewed the need to replace it and talked about how this required us to borrow up to $175,000. This would have brought our debt to a level that would have been difficult to maintain. We agonized over the dilemma; and then my wife, Louise decided to embark on a fundraising venture. Within a couple of weeks, she had secured a tremendous quote for the roof replacement from a reputable company and received 3 large donations from corporate donors in the amount of almost $100,000. Praise God! We have asked our church members to make donations towards the cost of the roof and as it stands now, I am anticipating, by faith, that we will be able to write a cheque for the entire amount without incurring any additional debt.
We thank God for working this great miracle, a new roof in the middle of Covid season.
What a faithful God!
