This is just a building
And…
This is so much more than a building
This is one man’s vision
This is a miracle before our eyes
This is the Kingdom coming
This is out of the bright blue skies
This is our prayers being answered
This is the heavens rent in two
This is a place of learning
This is the future peeking through
This is the changing of lives
This is a generous grace
This is blessings coming back
This is the redemption of space
This is communities transformed
This is the good news sent
This is God in the midst of us
This is what Jesus meant
This is building hope for a nation
This is just the beginning
This is injustice hammered down
This is the least of these - winning
This is all that we believe in
This is all the words we sing
This is all my tears of joy
This is the most beautiful thing.
This is just a building
And…
This is so much more than a building.
A couple of years ago my Church, Fitzroy, embarked on a building project to restore and extend the halls around our Church. At a Fields Of Life event I came to a sudden realisation that if we tithed our building costs we could build a school in Africa. Fitzroy, having done such a tithing exercise in the past, quickly agreed and we became partners with the people of Onialeku, just outside Arua in north west Uganda. In the end, not by any design, we worked through Fields Of Life.
This poem is what seeing that building that we funded expressed to me, deep in my heart, soul and mind.
This Sunday night (October 4th 2015) I will be sharing the story, people and context of our building in Onialeku as well as our own new halls that we moved into this very week and another building, The Belfast School of Music Building on Donegal Pass, that we have suddenly realised belongs to us.
They are just buildings... but they are much more than buildings.
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