Chapel Update

Hello friends. Here are a number of updates from the Kuehl's regarding their potential chapel purchase.

From: Daniel Kuehl
Sent: Thursday, November 09, 2006 5:10 AM
Subject: Special prayer request!

Dear Friends,
I would like to share with you two items of importance:

#1. Chapel for sale in Senlis!
That is right! On November 27th our county is selling a large group of buildings that used to be a hospital. Since the 50s the county has been using them to store their archives. All of their archives have now been regrouped at the county seat in Beauvais. The buildings in Senlis are now empty and will be sold as a lot to the highest bidder. There is a beautiful chapel being sold with the lot (see attached pictures). It is quite large and was completely restored in 1982. It has several other rooms that go with it. We have been in contact with one man who is a developer very interested in the sale. He has told us that the chapel holds no interest for developers and would most likely be resold very quickly. Please pray with us that if this is God's solution for a building for our church that the right person would win the bid. Pray that he would be open to finding a workable solution so that we could buy it.

#2.
Many of you have heard but not all of you got the news of Margaret's mom's death. She was transported into the presence of her loving Lord on October 15th. Margaret writes the following:

You have made known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
Psalm 16:11

This was my Mom's favorite verse. Since Sunday morning, October 15th, my Mom has been experiencing fully the truth of this Psalm. She is rejoicing in the presence of her Saviour. God allowed me to arrive at my Mom's bedside in Maine Saturday morning while she was still conscious. My sister, Ruth, and I were still at her side when she passed away. God also blessed us with the presence of almost the whole family (which is very spread out) for the funeral. Pray for my Dad. They were married for 58 years and the separation is hard. I am so thankful for the loving care of my sister and her family who live right next door to him. "Blessed be the name of the Lord."

Margaret Kuehl

Thanks for your partnership, your prayers are precious to us,
Dan

From: Daniel Kuehl
Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 8:18 AM
Subject: Quick update on Chapel purchase

Subject: Quick update on Chapel purchase
Dear friends,
I have been waiting in order to get more precise information but I thought it would be good to send a quick update to all of you who have been praying. The total hospital complex that contains the chapel we are interested in was sold to a large building contractor in Paris. They paid a fairly high price for it (3,300,000 [euros]). They will most likely transform it into an apartment complex. We are still waiting until the sale is finalized to contact the buyers to see if they will sell us the chapel. The chapel is the only part that doesn't need any major work on it in order to be used right away as it was totally restored in 1982.
Keep praying! We would have preferred that someone we knew locally had bought it but God knows all of this. Our local contacts and politicians really want us to have this building. They have also reassured us that a building contractor would have no use for the chapel.
Thanks again for your prayers. I will definitely keep you posted as to future developments.
Dan Kuehl

From: Daniel Kuehl
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2007 12:31 PM
Subject: Chapel update

Dear friends,
We have finally been able to contact the new owners of the old hospital complex that contains the chapel. They admitted they had no specific plans for the chapel and seem very open to working with us on this project. I and some men in the church will visit it for the first time next Tuesday. Please be in prayer for us that God will give us wisdom to know how to proceed on this. There has been no talk of price yet so we are just trusting God that they will propose a workable financial package. Thanks so much for your prayers, there is so much more we could do to reach this city with the gospel if we had a larger, more central building like this one to work with.
All for the glory of the Lamb,
Dan

From: Daniel Kuehl
Sent: Friday, February 02, 2007 11:51 AM
Subject: Quick chapel update

Dear friends,
Our entire church council was able to visit the chapel this week so I'll write a quick note to let you know where things stand. We all came away thinking, yes, the main auditorium needs clean-up and decoration but otherwise would work excellently for our church. The more important question is, where could we have toilets, kitchen and Sunday School space? If you look at the picture of the transept you will see a glass door directly behind me. That door leads to a beautiful room that communicates with a hallway that contains toilets and three meeting rooms all ready to go! (They are on the ground floor of the right wing of the building that you see in the outside picture) We couldn't believe it when we saw them! We are now waiting for the notary to finish his assessment of the value of the chapel so that we can enter into negotiations. Pray that the owners will be open to finding a workable solution. Everything is so expensive in Senlis so we have no idea at this point whether this will all be do-able. We really need God to intervene in hearts. Thanks again for your prayers. We'll keep you posted.
God's richest blessings,
Dan

From: Daniel Kuehl
Sent: Saturday, February 24, 2007 4:24 PM
Subject: Chapel update

Dear friends,
Just a quick note to keep you up to date on the latest developments. Negotiations are slowly moving ahead on the Chapel. We as a church council have decided that the chapel building by itself would not be adequate for our needs. What is amazing, though, is all the space that we need is already there if the contractor that bought it is willing to sell it to us. Attached to the chapel is a wing that contains a good size all-purpose room of 300 sq. feet and 4 classrooms! We have made an offer to buy these rooms at the going price if they would be willing to donate the chapel to the church. The buyers have now submitted our offer to their architects to see if this can be integrated into their overall plans and if it meets safety standards. We hope to have an answer by early March. Humanly speaking, our offer would seem unrealistic in the high finance world of today but we are just praying that God will work in hearts to make this project happen. Thank you for your partnership in this.
Have a great Lord's day,
Dan

P.S. I am attaching the plans of the chapel project showing the parts we want to buy encircled in green. The measurements are indicated in sq. meters.

From: Daniel Kuehl
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Subject: chapel update


Dear prayer partners,

Negotiations have moved forward on buying the chapel. The owner's starting price was 700,000 euros for the chapel and the extra rooms. Our initial offer was exactly half of that at 350,000 euros. After much discussion and telephone conversations we are making a firm offer of 430,000 euros. The officially signed letter went out this morning. The owners have promised to give it serious consideration and will give us a response by the beginning of next week. The church council feels that this is as high as we can go on the price. In offering 430,000 euros, we are trusting the Lord to bring in $100,000 in one-time gifts. This is a big step of faith for our young church. So far God has prepared the way before us and has opened many doors in this project. He has even provided a first unsollicited gift of $5,000 towards the building! Please pray for this final step in this project. Pray that God's will be confirmed in all hearts concerned. Finally, if we do move ahead on this project, pray that God would "do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power... to Him be the glory in the church"!

Thank you so much for your partnership in this,

Dan Kuehl