GIRDWOOD CHAPEL MOVES —MAY 27TH, 2003
This was an awesome day. The church was put on the back of a flatbed trailer on Monday, May 26th. (Our joke was that it would just require 4 strong persons for such a small building!) There it sat overnight.
The Chapel Moves to Its New HomeOn
the 27th, at 7 PM we gathered at our property on Olympic Circle. One of
our Alaskan Superintendents was there. A retired clergyperson was
there. Our Bishop and his wife were there. And 67 people were there to
follow the Chapel to its new location. The chapel had to go uphill for
the first little bit and it was all downhill from there. We had
anticipated walking behind the church and singing as we went. However,
it went much faster than expected and almost turned into a jog. In
approximately 45 minutes, it was at its new home.
One of the special things we did that night was to “Raise an Ebenezer.” If you look at 1
Tim Bennett Helps "Raise the Ebenezer"
Samuel 7:12-14 you can see the story. Essentially, the Philistines are
causing problems for the Hebrews and it is not looking good. But Samuel
takes a stone and places it as memorial for all that God has done and
also with the hope of all that God has yet to do. He names the place
Ebenezer, meaning “Stone of Help” or “thus far the Lord has helped us.”
One commentary I looked at when doing some research for this service
said it means, “You’ve done a good job so far, Lord. Keep it up.”
As we moved the church, we carried stones from our old property and “Raised an Ebenezer” on our new property. Each person was able to place a stone. With this, we remembered how much God had helped us and how much we would need him to help us still as we look toward building a new facility. “You’ve done a good job so far Lord. Keep it up.”