12 Crazy Minutes on a Monday...

This is an email that I sent out to our church body regarding a meeting with a landowner on Monday, August 29th at 11 a.m.

Catalyst,

We have asked for your prayers regarding a meeting that occurred at 11 a.m. this morning. Everything has happened rather quickly regarding this land and you should know that the meeting went well. I will give details on the meeting in a moment but I want to give you some backstory first.

6 Months Ago.....

God began stirring something inside of me that Catalyst would be called to do something that required a lot of faith. I told our leadership team about this stirring and also told them that I had no idea what God was calling us to do, but I asked them to join me in prayer that God would make this clear.

1 Month Ago...

I began sensing that we needed to pursue some of the land that surrounds Catalyst. We are landlocked and do not own enough land for future expansion. I continued to pray and put "call land owners" on my to do list. We had inquired about the land a year before out of curiosity and one piece was listed for $365k while the other was $150k. Those numbers were very discouraging as they were much too expensive to even consider buying.

Two Weeks Ago...

I picked up the phone and called the landowners. Nothing had changed price-wise on the $365k land, but I had a very interesting conversation with a lady, whom I had met a year earlier, representing the $150k land. She asked that I meet with our leadership team and come to them with an offer of what we could pay. I told her that I was worried about insulting them with an offer because "what we could pay" was nowhere near their asking price. She assured me that she understood and told me that she would be in touch.

Eight Days Ago...

We called the church to pray for God's will regarding the potential land deal. We committed to trusting God in all of this.

Four Days Ago...

The Catalyst Leadership team met for about 90 minutes. We prayed, we discussed, then discussed some more about what we should offer. We settled on an amount that would ensure we were being good stewards of what God has given us and would be honoring of the landowner as well. We hoped that I didn't get laughed out of the upcoming meeting.

One Day Ago...

We asked for the church to unite in prayer for the meeting that happened this morning.

11 a.m. this morning...

I made my way to a meeting with the landowner. It was by far the shortest meeting I have ever been a part of. The owner pulled me into a side room and asked me what was going on with Catalyst . I told him of the great things God is doing and how amazed we have been at the lives He is changing.

Then we got down to business. He asked me where we were at on an offer. I told him that I did not want to insult him and proceeded to give him our offer. He shook his head and opened a bible to 1 Timothy 6 and read these words out loud...

17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

He then told me that we could figure out something to do with our offer because he was GIVING us the land. My eyes teared up and then I began to laugh. I told him that I had heard stories of this type of gift being given to other churches and that it just seemed surreal.

We talked for a bit more and he thanked me for giving him the opportunity to be obedient. Did you catch that? The gift giver gave thanks to us (Catalyst), the recipient, for the opportunity to give a gift.

I prayed a prayer that probably only made sense to God, we hugged, I was told to never mention a name, and I giggled all the way to my car. I stopped, looked at my cell phone, realized it was 11:12 a.m. and that I had just experienced twelve crazy minutes on a Monday.

Thanks and Praise be to God for all he is doing in and through Catalyst!

Grace and Peace,

Levi