Daily Bread Aug 12

The Impossible Becomes Possible
By Nancy Hylton of Seattle, WA, USA


Beloved children of the Restoration, your continuing faith adventure with God has been divinely-led, eventful, challenging, and sometimes surprising to you. By the grace of God, you are poised to fulfill God’s ultimate vision for the church. —Doctrine and Covenants 164:9a

The news of a huge foundation problem in our church building came as a shock to our small congregation. We shared our church building with another small church and worried about the impact on them also. How would it be possible to raise nearly $300,000 to make our building safe? It looked like an impossible task!

As the other co-pastor and I prayed for guidance, we both felt a strong confirmation that our congregation should stay in the building. Yet we had no idea how we would carry out this huge undertaking. To receive a loan from World Church, we needed one third of the amount up front.

We said, “If God wants us to do this, then we’d better start figuring out what to do.” We moved forward with a plan to raise the needed funds. As we made plans, an opportunity arose to house the offices of the Church Council of Greater Seattle in our church building. We realized this might be the solution God was planning for us.

The Church Council and our partner congregation needed to negotiate for space while the workers repaired the building for eight weeks. The chances of all this working out positively were hard to imagine.

But there we were in June 2013, with many hard-working people engaged in the repairs. The Church Council moved in, and the other congregation shifted its space to make room for them. With our common ground being our faith in God, a spirit of cooperation provided a possible solution to an impossible situation.

There was an overwhelming response from people connected to our congregation. One family put up a large amount in matching funds. That spurred other donations. Through the generous response from everyone, we raised the money needed.

Today’s scripture tells us, our “…continuing faith adventure with God has been divinely-led, eventful, challenging, and sometimes surprising to [us].” Surprise, surprise! We did it!

Prayer for Peace

God of Possibilities, when our common ground is our faith in you, we can work together for peaceful solutions.

Spiritual Practice: Offering Blessings of Community

Receive and share Blessings of Community. Begin with a prayer of gratitude for the friendships in your life. See and feel connections with family members, spiritual friends, people in your congregation and community, and people and creatures in God’s sacred web of life. What blessings flow to you from these circles? How have you felt the love of the community?

Peace Covenant

Today, God, I will remember, “Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have.” —Margaret Mead

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