God has a plan for everyone and everything. And I’m amazed how God uses you and others to accomplish His work in the world. As think about that statement, I’m thankful for the many ways that ministries such as yours partner with us to help serve our community and make disciples in the city of Jackson. Whether through prayer, volunteer/man hours, or strategic giving, your partnership with Southside means everything to us and we do not take it lightly. With this in mind, on behalf of our church’s leadership team, I would like to make an appeal for support with hope that you may be able to help.
At Southside, we work hard to steward our limited resources to Glory of God. Many of our staff make little to no income or volunteer their time to ensure church business is conducted from week-to-week. We incorporate thrifty strategies to maximize the impact of the gifts that are given so that we are able to continue the Lord’s work. We’ve also worked as hard to maintain our facilities so that we are able serve our congregation and community. However, we now have a major need that requires lots of prayer and a God-sized answer.
Our roof has been a source of constant maintenance in recent yours for the church. In the last 5 years we’ve made multiple attempts maintenance the roof of upper building that contains our sanctuary by a variant of measures including patching and re-tarring the entirety of the roof. We’ve even had the help of mission teams to remove the rocks from the roof to add tar in hopes of finding and repairing leaks. Yet with lots of “sweat equity” we are still experiencing leaks that are significant eyesores and constant frustrations to the leadership, staff, congregation and guests. In our upper building, many of the churches hallways and classrooms have water damaged carpets due to roof leaks. Many of the church’s trash cans are not utilized for their intended use—they are now dedicated rain receptacles during periods of wet, cold weather. To make matters worse, some leaks have eroded to the point of needing larger containers to hold the leakage. In our Adult Men’s Sunday School classroom (which is our college/career room and food pantry), there sits a kiddie-sized swimming pool (yes, a swimming pool) and multiple trash cans in efforts to contain the leak. That room also serves as our Celebrate Recovery classroom during our Wednesday night services. And that is only one of the multiple struggles we face as we work to minister.
As we are rallying to raise support for our upper building, our lower building (with fellowship hall, classrooms, and gymnasium) now has leaks that have become increasingly worse. During our recent Fall Festival ministry our staff had to be creative in cordoning off certain areas of the gymnasium floor due to avoid liability from containing leaks on our basketball floor. Many of the activities planned for the festival had to move to a different location or cancelled due to lack of space. As we’ve tried to patch and repair the roof leaks on the lower building, we’ve experienced warping of the hardwood which makes part of our gym unusable. With less space to utilize it is becoming a devastating blow to planning future ministry opportunities such as summer youth and children outreach activities including our Academic Summer Enrichment Program and athletic camps.
Even with these challenges in tow, we still press on. We are a congregation who has seen God work on our behalf and want to continue being obedient in serving His people. We have core families and others who love Jesus, work hard, and give selflessly, but also have many in our congregation who love Jesus, work hard, but are not able to give as sacrificially. And because of this, we write asking for assistance in support of raising funds to replace the rooves of both buildings.
According to estimates our leadership team has requested from licensed and bonded construction companies, the cost resurfacing our current roof with a new 20-year roof will cost between $50,000-$80,000. Would you be willing to make a one-gift or recurring gift towards our efforts to replace our roof?
Know that every gift given helps us get closer to the goal of maintaining our facility to continue the work that God has prepared for us to do and to spreading the Gospel of Christ. This effort for support is about coming together as a community united behind a common cause. If you are interested in giving or have questions about our support-raising initiative please contact feel free to contact me with the enclosed contact information. We will also post information about our support initiative on our church website, www.ssbaptistchurch.com
Again, we appreciate your continued support and we hope that you’ll consider making a donation towards this God-sized effort with the expectation that he will use all of us to accomplish this great goal!
In Christ,
