The building pictured here has been the home of CORE Church of Troy since we took the building over at the end of 2005 to begin a new work. This facility, located at 6th Ave & 101st St., had been the home of Sixth Avenue Baptist Church since 1913, when the buiding was erected. To say the past three years have been challenging would be an understatement. For the first year of our ministry here, the facility held up nicely. We invested a little bit of $$$ to maintain the building. Year two brought some roof leaks and a few other minor issues that we quickly addressed. This past year, #3, has been the most challenging, as the inside of the building began to deteriortate gradually. The heating system started malfunctioning, along with the antiquated electrical system. This past winter brought frozen pipes throughout the building, then bursting pipes as they began to thaw. Both bathrooms and kitchen, as well as the boiler were rendered useless due to the frozen pipe situation. Then the roof started leaking again, in various spots, as winter snow and ice began to melt. The facility became overwhelming, almost to the point of where this church planter was seriously thinking of packing it in and going elsewhere.
I began a period of fasting and prayer, not wanting to give up on the vision and burden God had given me back in 2005. I had literally reached the end of myself, once again, and was totally dependent upon God, who had sent us here to plant His church. God showed me a commercial space that had become available in our neighborhood. My first impression, looking at the space through the front window, was that it was too small. At 1300 sq.ft. it is a fraction of the size of our church bldg. Also to consider, we'd be paying rent plus utilities here, while we owe nothing on the old church bldg and are only paying utilities and insurance, yet we were only using about 40% of the total space. So, we decided to hold off and waith for God to show us what to do. He has shown us through the series of events that have taken place, one after another, to lead us to the point of deciding we must leave this old, cold building. There's more to the story for anyone who wants to hear it.
Here we are, with spring and the Easter season approaching, and we are moving into this new space (photos and update coming soon). Power and gas were turned on today. All of this past week, Ron and Artie and I have been busy cleaning the place up and moving rugs and chairs, along with aound equipment and lots of coffee from Stewart's, which is the neighborhood gathering spot, located directly across Glen Ave from our new space.
We are located at 3301 6th Ave (corner of 6th and Glen), directly between two public housing projects; King apartments to the East, on the hill, and Arnold Fallon Apartments, located one block west and one block south of our new location. Our old, cold, building will soon become the home of another vital street ministry, as Rev. Willie Bacote and his Missing Link Street Ministry take over the building. We are hopeful that God will provide the finances, manpower and other needed resources, so that we can continue with the Feed-a-Kid Ministry and other strategic community ministries. We, the CORE Church, are praising God for the opportunity to partner with Rev. Bacote and his ministry and to offer this building to his ministry.
Dare we believe that God has orchestrated all of these events to bring about His will and His glory! God has done just that, and He has spread out our reach in this North Central Troy community. I am already praying and anticipating God growing us and expanding our reach into Lansingburgh and other parts of Troy and throughout New York's Capital region.
Won't you pray with us?
