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By Don Thatcher
After commuting for six months from Dublin to Waterford, Ireland, our family
relocated to the city of Waterford. Our church was meeting in a local hotel for our
Sunday church services. The mid-week service was held primarily in our home
and at other times in the home of a church family. The hotel meeting rooms were
affordable and had served us well for over 12 years. The Lord had given us many
opportunities of outreach while meeting in the hotel as well as kind favor with the
hotel management.

Church ministry in rented facilities that are used or occupied by others requires a
lot of extra work that comes with having to set everything up before services, tear
it down at the end of the service, and haul it all away. I am thankful for a family
that has been willing to get up earlier to help haul in the needed items for
the service, such as hymnbooks and the keyboard.

As a church, we had been praying for a very long time to be able
to find a suitable meeting place for our church that we could
have 24/7. There was nothing available in the right place for
the right price. In 2016, the Lord seemed to be closing the
door at the hotel. Due to various circumstances, it became
necessary for us to diligently seek out a new place to
meet. Proverbs 3:5–6 say, Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all
thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

These verses have been a guide to us, especially during
the search for a new meeting place. As we moved
through the weeks of 2017, the Lord began opening a
new door of opportunity. A unit in a retail park had
become available for rent. The location was great and
since it was in a retail park, there was also plenty of
parking that can often be a great difficulty to find in
Ireland. Who would have thought an abandoned hair salon
could become our church meeting place? Well, stranger
things have happened. As we investigated the building,
it was in rough shape. The ceiling tiles were stained and
several were cracked and broken. Several light fixtures
had been taken down. Though it had two bathrooms,
one was unfinished. On top of that, the building was
vacated and all the salon equipment left behind. That
12 BIMI WORLD
Number 1, 2019