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Note from the Pastor, April 17, 2016

A History of Hope Fellowship, Chapter 4: The Building Years

  In 2005 the Christian Reformed Church celebrated its one hundredth anniversary in Canada. That summer, 96 cyclists cycled from Vancouver to Halifax as part of the first “Sea to Sea with the CRC” tour. Another 60 cyclists joined them for the Pacific stage, the Central stage, or the Atlantic stage. Jim, Marja and I represented Hope Fellowship and did the entire distance, an unforgettable experience that drew attention to poverty and raised money for planting new churches. Ours was the only tandem bicycle, Big Blue, a bike we bought after Marja broke her wrist on a training ride. We will be forever grateful for Hope Fellowship’s sabbatical policy and the opportunity to serve our Lord and our denomination in this adventurous way, eighteen flat tires notwithstanding!
  Immediately upon our return, the leadership focused on expanding our facilities. We welcomed competing bids from architects and settled on Reinders and Rieder, the firm that had also designed Carruthers Creek Community Church. Our own Richard was selected as project manager. All we needed now was money and permission from the Region to proceed.
  Over the next months each household received a personal call and visit and $1.1 million was pledged. For many, their donation was a huge leap of faith, often requiring the postponement of other plans like home renovations, car purchases and vacations. But we were so excited!
  Unfortunately, our excitement was not shared by our neighbour, a Toronto developer who owned the twenty acres between our property and Trulls Road. As a result of his opposition, we had to pay $30,000 in legal fees in order to win our case with the Ontario Municipalities Board. The resulting seven month delay lost us the opportunity to work during the good weather months. Our ground breaking ceremony was held in late October of 2007 and the actual building finally began in December. During the winter of 2008, concrete blocks were laid under huge tarps heated by powerful propane heaters. A fierce winter storm shifted a wall, which needed to be re-built. A propane heater was stolen. But with the Lord’s help we made it to the spring when we began the interior work. We buried a Bible in the sanctuary’s concrete floor, like a loonie hidden at centre ice during the winter Olympics.
  That summer tragedy struck our church, Geoffrey, a vivacious, humourous and popular teenager from our church, died on August 24, 2008, only two weeks after being diagnosed with the same aggressive form of cancer that Terry Fox had. His unexpected, sudden death rocked his family, Durham Christian High School and our church. Our hearts still hurt from the terrible loss of this “comedian and Christ-follower” who died “too young and too soon.”
  Our facilities were completed that fall and on December 7, 2008, we worshiped together at Dr. G. J. MacGillivray Public School for the last time. We stood in the gym and sang, accompanied by two unplugged guitars. Fifteen minutes later, everyone took a stone from a pile of rocks on the stage and drove down Bloor Street to our new building, 1.3 kilometres away. Police officers blocked traffic at the intersections and we formed an unending line of cars between the school and our church. At Hope Fellowship, everyone brought their rocks into the new sanctuary and built an altar on the stage. We worshiped God with all our might, marveling at our new facilities. I preached a sermon on John 4:14, the words of Jesus inscribed on our water feature: “Those who drink the water I give them will never thirst.” The Building Years were done for the time being. The Growing Years were around the bend!
- Pastor Peter

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