Memoirs of Faith
Memoirs of Faith is a series of
events that have become the spiritual building blocks of Vineyard
Boise. As we continue to move forward, we must also look back and
remember our miraculous history. God is faithfully building our
church!
The story about the purchase of
Vineyard Boise’s current property seems like it comes right out of the
Old Testament.
In 1994 we were meeting in a section
of an old grocery store on Overland. We needed three Sunday services
just to fit everyone in and we had no room for children’s ministries,
let alone childcare. To expand the amount of space we were renting was
going to cost thousands of dollars to renovate the building and add a
sprinkler system.
Our church culture was used to
renting buildings and moving as needed, sort of our own wandering in the
desert. Those of use who had moved up from the Lancaster Vineyard had
never owned church property. But through some wise counsel from Ray and
Margaret Robnett, we begin to search for the Promised Land here in
Boise.
With a little bit of demographic
research we found that there were 122 churches at that time in Boise,
but only one in the Garden City area. Garden City was full of lower
income housing, quite a bit of crime, and several adult book stores. As
we had a heart for the poor and were developing our value of
benevolence, we felt that God was calling us to build in this area.
There was one large parcel of ground
left in Garden City. Twenty-two great acres were available right next to
the Garden City police department, city hall and public library. It was
a great piece of land and the asking price represented it – a million
dollars. We made an offer on the land but it was so ridiculously low,
$250,000, that the bank didn’t even make a counter offer.
Right around that time the EPA did a
ground water survey. They found that there was a pollution problem that
would most likely require a costly clean up. It turned out that years
before, a dry cleaning company had dumped gallons of toxic waste
materials that seeped into the ground and poisoned the underground
water. The land had also been an old airstrip and there was some concern
that some fuel had leaked into the ground water. Now the bank was
anxious to get rid of the land and came back to us to see if we were
interested. We told them we were – for $175,000. Since we paid cash for
the land (which is another miracle story) the bank was happy to let us
The only reason we were able to
acquire the last available large piece of commercial property within the
city limits for $175,000 was due to the fact everyone else was afraid of
it. The 22-acre parcel had been listed for nearly a million dollars and
was adjacent to the Due to the fact it had been tagged by the EPA as
having an underground water pollution problem, no one would buy it for
fear of inheriting the responsibility of a costly clean up.
Because we paid cash for the land,
the bank that had repossessed it was very relieved to get rid of it for
that amount. We now had land to build on, but it was going to be very
difficult to get financing for the project because of the problem with
the water.
At that time an old friend of mine
came to me with what he felt was a word from the Lord. Ray Gallegos is
one of the early members of Vineyard Boise and has always had the heart
of a servant. Years before, Ray had been a student at the Vineyard
School of Ministry in the mountains of Southern California. Nancy and I
were the directors of the school at that time and built a relationship
of trust with Ray. On this day his word sounded crazy to me, but because
of his servant’s heart and humility, I took special notice.
Ray had read the following scripture
in his morning devotion time, and now he shared it with me.
The men of the city said to
Elisha, “Look, our lord, this town is well situated, as you can see, but
the water is bad and the land is unproductive.”
“Bring me a new bowl,” he
said, “and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him.
Then he went out to the spring
and threw the salt into it, saying, “This is what the LORD says: ‘I have
healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land
unproductive.’” And the water has remained wholesome to this day,
according to the word Elisha had spoken.
2 Kings 2:19-22
This is the story of Elisha’s first
action of faith after Elijah had been taken up in a chariot of fire. The
spring that watered the city of Jericho was toxic and because of it a
land of promise was unproductive. By a word of the Lord, Elisha ordered
the people to fill a new bowl with salt and pour it into the well.
Through their act of faith the water was purified and remained
‘wholesome’ forever.
As Ray read this scripture his
spirit leaped. He felt if we would do the same thing with our wells God
would be faithful to heal our water problem. At first the idea seemed a
bit out there for me, but as I thought about it I realized it wouldn’t
cost us much: less than a dollar for a box of salt and a little
humility.
We announced Ray’s word to the
church and as I recall, about a dozen people were radical enough to show
up on a cold spring day at the property. We found the three well casings
that had been placed strategically on the property by the County to
provide access to the water table for testing. We dumped the salt in
each one, prayed and called the EPA for a retest. To our great joy and
amazement the water samples were pure and the land was declared safe and
productive again.
With that declaration the value of
the land more than doubled the original listing of nearly a million
dollars, a price we could never have afforded in the early days of our
church. Now we could borrow money for the building if we needed it to
complete the project. It was definitely a faithful builder for our
church – God is a God of miracles and his miracles and faithfulness are
alive and available today, just as they were in Elisha’s time in 800 b.c.
