Have you ever been on a long journey? A journey that starts out with all good intentions and excitement? Thoughts of the Israelite journey firstly springs to mind, where there is no thought of trouble ahead, with God’s leading, who can be against us? Well, this journey, you will soon discover is one of adventure, struggles and trials. But as the bible instructs us, with God on our side, faithfulness, perseverance and trust in God, we will be more than conquerors.
This particular journey started out when the members of the Casey SDA Church (Formally Dandenong SDA church) had outgrown their church premises in Hutton Street Dandenong. It was agreed that they would sell the church facilities and purchase another premise where they could continue to expand. The land that was purchased, became a lawyers dream, council would reject the church applications and one court case after another until eventually, the Casey SDA Church community were forced to stop pursuing the dream.
Many years of moving from one site to another, from school buildings and TAFE colleges to the First Romanian Baptist church facility in Endeavour Hills have passed. The faithful people continued to pray and search for a site to make their church home. Now, many years have gone, since the sale of the Dandenong church site, a new site has been purchased. The Casey church will now be located at 5 Rebound Court Narre Warren.
This site had never attracted the attention of the members, but through prayer a request which was sent out to other churches for ideas for a location, Pastor Craig Gillis had heard of a building in Narre Warren and passed on the details and this building was purchased. One of the many answers to pray that can be testified to by Casey members.
This building had been a sports and leisure centre and was in derelict condition. In fact, another religious group had purchased it and had tried to convince council to allow them to convert the building into a place of worship. These applications had failed due to public backlash about a “place of worship in their neighbourhood”. With is in mind, they sold the building to Casey SDA church members and again, with a prayerful spirit, Casey members took their requests to the Almighty God knowing that He would lead if this was to be the site.
With Galan Gan’s help, plans were drawn and building practitioners were engaged to make applications to the City of Casey to have the building approved for “change of use to a place of worship”, just as the previous group had tried and failed. This time though, God was leading, and the application was approved!
The members of Casey church family have moved forward with obtaining building permits and now the building works have started. There have been many hurdles from connecting services such as electricity, to burst water mains and fire hydrant supply issues. The building has had its fair share of graffiti artists, drug users and squatters occupying the building, but now with works under way, we are seeing great progress.
Each Sunday morning will find dedicated tradesmen working towards completing a vision, a journey that was started out many years ago. Some church members are no longer here to see the works, but their vision is still becoming a reality. The church still faces many hurdles such as financial constraints and with the current Covid crisis, accessing materials and labour is challenging. However, we have seen God lead when in particular, He supplied pack lots of timber to a church member’s business just when we needed it and when timber was not available to purchase. We have seen God working behind the scenes in opening doors and supplying our needs at each and every time. We pray, we ask and God delivers.
The Casey church is designed to be a place of influence within a community that needs Jesus. It is located right next to a train station and shopping village where we will have maximum exposure.
Yes, we still have challenges in store, but by Gods grace, mercy and leading, He will go before us.
If you would like to do something for God too, then contact pastor Michael Mohanu the church senior Pastor and register your interest. A contribution of finances or qualified labour will be made welcome (Not to forget your Prayers). Consider that one day all knees will come to worship before God on that great day, what a joy it will be to know that we all did something to help the outreach of His people.
Peter McMurray