I am going to share an e-mail that I got from the Questing Parson

If you can help or know someone that can please click on the Questing Parson and help get this done. It is an opportunity to be a “follower of Christ”

Thursday, September 6, I drove past a church here in Calhoun that was for sale. It’s a former Church of Christ and they have moved out to a much larger facility. As I drove by I suddenly had a flash — Women With Children Homeless Shelter.

I went home and called the real estate agent. He met me that afternoon at the church. I walked through and was amazed. It is PERFECT for a facility that would host up to nine homeless women with up to three children each, in a small efficiency living area. There would be a living room / lounge for the adults that is connected to a indoor play room for the kids. There are rooms to set up a computer lab, study area, etc., for the kids. There’s a large kitchen / fellowship hall area (probably a little bigger than Epworth’s).

There is no women’s shelter from Cartersville (23 miles south of my house) to Chattanooga.

On Friday, September 7, I passed the pastor of First United Methodist at a gathering and just said, “I need to talk to you.”

He called me Saturday and arranged to meet Monday. I called the agent and arranged for him to meet us at the church at 11:00 a.m. Note: As of yet I have said nothing to Brian Clark, the First Church pastor, about the purpose of our meeting. I picked him up at his church at 10:30. As we pulled out of the parking lot he said, “I don’t know what you wanted to talk about, but do you mind if I share something with you first?” I told him to go ahead. He said, “I have this powerful feeling I cannot shake that a women’s shelter needs to be build here.”

Okay, so we talk to the real estate broker. He says the owner is asking $1.5 million. (fair price, by the way). He also tells us there’s an offer on the table, but he thinks we might have time to try and put something together. Brian and I leave with him drawing up a list of money people in the community we can approach and me to work on a prospectus to present to them.

This past Friday I got a call from the broker. The owner of the building had been in Egypt. He was coming back to Calhoun that day, but he would only be in town four hours. He wanted to talk to me and Brian. I called Brian and he was out-of-town. I went by myself to meet with him.

Turns out some businessmen have presented him with a legitimate offer for the building, meeting his price. They want to turn the building into a storage facility. The owner then told me that for us he would drop the price of the property to $900,000 if we didn’t include the parking lot. He then stated that he would retain ownership of the parking lot and would put in writing that he would develop that into a professional building property or such that would not in any way interfere with the operation of a shelter. He said the businessmen were under the impression that he was not going to be back in town until next Tuesday. So — here it comes!

He says if Brian and I can come up with $10,000 by Monday as earnest money, he will inform the businessmen the property is already under contract. He will then give us sixty days to come up with our organization and he will personally finance the purchase of the property below the prime rate on a five year contract with payments at what we needed and with a balloon payment at the end if necessary.

So, I said, “Ten thousand by Monday?”

He said, “Yes.” And then he added. “Look, I’m not going to help you purchase my property, but if you do I guarantee you that the mills I own will make a substantial contribution annually to the operation of the shelter.”

“Ten thousand?” I repeated.

The real estate broker said, “Actually, you don’t need ten thousand. Just raise $7500. I’ll give $2500.

I have $2000 to go.

If you need a specif name for which to pray, if this comes together I’m thinking of calling it, “My Mama’s Place.”

contributions can be made to:

The Farmville Church
6906 Fairmount Highway
Calhoun, GA 30701

We’ve set up an account until the shelter can be organized business wise. This will allow the person’s contribution to be tax deductible.

And keep praying. Whew! What a project.
God is good.

Thanks
Guy

We don’t often get a chance to really help something good to happen…but here is the opportunity.