MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
The first worship service in our historic Downtown Panama City sanctuary, located at 100 East 7th St., Panama City, FL 32401, is set for Sunday, April 19!!
We praise God for His bringing us to this point, sustaining us over the last 7 + years, and we look forwards with great joy to worshipping again in His sanctuary where saints have worshipped nearly 75 years.
UP TILL NOW:
THE HISTORY OF "A Great Work!"
There is still so much to be done! Our Sanctuary building is currently in the process of being rebuilt, our education building has been sold, and all of our Sunday School and office facilities are still in need of repair. There is a Great Work ahead of us, and we want to invite you to come along with us for the journey. We are confident that God is going to provide everything we need in order to rebuild, both financially and spiritually, and we think you could be a huge part of making this process a success. Above financial support, we need your prayers during this time. If you are able to give, that is welcomed and appreciated, but we covet your prayers just as much. We hope that you will take some time to check out this page and see where we have come, and where we are hoping to go in the future. Check out our capital campaign materials, and if you feel led, you can donate HERE, or, at the bottom of this page.
In the eye...
You can see from the radar images that our little town of Panama City was directly in the eye of the storm. We didn't know it at the time, but we experienced a Category 5 hurricane dead on.
Brochure front page
You will be seeing a couple of pages from our campaign brochure on this page, and this is the front page. The verse is our campaign theme from Nehemiah, and is a reminder that just as God was with His people through the great task of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, He is still active and present with us today.
Pictures of recovery
The center photo is an aerial shot of our building shortly after the storm taken by a drone. The other pictures are from children/youth events, and of gracious workers who came in droves to help us after the storm. In fact, teams are still coming even a year after the storm to continue to help!
Important dates
Here are some important dates for our campaign...
Oct. 20th: Kickoff Breakfast
Nov. 16th: Prayer event at FPS
Nov. 17th: Celebration Sunday
Dec. 2nd: Giving starts
SANCTUARY work
PCAMNA was quick to come and help us just days after the storm hit. The months following, we had hundreds of people coming from all over the US to help us recover. You have no idea how much it meant to us to have brothers and sisters in Christ come and help. They not only saved us thousands of dollars in demo/construction work, but they boosted our morale more than you can imagine! We thank God for you all!
Our property damage
Apart from our Sanctuary, we also had a large social hall, and a office/education building. All of our buildings were affected by the storm, and left us with millions of dollars of work to be done. The education building as well as social hall connected are currently under contract, and we hope to eventually have the funds to build a new social hall on our existing property.
A Great Work Campaign Video
Building Plans/Blueprints
Our building team has labored and prayed over these plans (and changed them multiple times!) all in the effort to restore and improve on our existing Sanctuary building. We are continuing to work with our architect to perfect this, but here you can see a good idea of what our new facilities will eventually look like once we are finished building.
Pastoral Letter
First Presbyterian Church is a place where people can be known and loved because we have experienced the lavish Grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Someone recently wrote, "I frequently tell people that I have never felt such warmth and love as I immediately felt when we first walked in First Presbyterian." We know that only God can make that happen as we are transformed by the preaching and teaching of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. We look to the future and are hungry to see God at work in us that we might reach out with the message of Christ to our church, neighbors, Panama City, and the whole world.
Concept Drawing
This is a picture of what our restored building will look like. We have attempted to maintain our traditional/classic look, while also modernizing the building plan a bit. We had added a crosswalk/pass-through between the education wing and the Sanctuary, as well as changed the interior layout.
We hope these improvements will help us be more effective in our ministry, and also make the building more accessible to people of all ages (we are adding an elevator).
Partnering With Us
In order to accomplish this Great Work, we need your help. To restore just our Sanctuary building alone will cost upwards of three million dollars. Whether this gift be a one time thing, or, a continuing gift is completely up to you. Also, a gift of any size is welcomed, big and small.
Apart from financial help, we also covet your prayers as we seek to honor God through this rebuilding phase. The church building was destroyed, but the church body was not. Pray that both spiritually and physically we will be restored during this time. That God would not only do a Great Work physically with the rebuild, but in our hearts and minds as well.
