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Prayer House Building - Progress and Plans
Dear Friends,
This update will focus on the building. It will be a bit like an annual stocktake, but instead of counting items on shelves, we’re going to see how far we’ve come, and what’s left to do. It’s always good to have a review, and this is the time of year when we think about these things and organise the building work for the next 12 months.
If you don’t like facts and figures, then please feel free to jump to the pictures at the end!
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Summary of work completed in 2019
We started 2019 with the “raw build” already completed. That means the physical structure of the building – foundations, walls, roof – and not much else. We had paid for the windows in 2018, but they were actually installed in 2019. We were so thankful to the Lord that we had come this far!
During 2019 we completed the internal “infrastructure” of the building. That means electricity cables, hot and cold-water pipes, an underfloor heating system, gas pipes, ventilation pipes and a drainage system all laid into the walls and floors. The walls were then covered in plaster and the floors with cement. Everything was nicely sealed – on the inside.
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Then we installed a boiler and connected the underfloor heating – by now the house was warm! And after that the top floor ceilings were put in place. By the end of 2019 we had completed all the internal infrastructure of the building. It was a milestone and we were so thankful! For the first time the building started to look like a real house.
Here’s a quick stocktake of the building at the end of 2019:
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- A “raw build” building, including roof
- Windows and balcony doors
- Utilities to the property – electricity, gas and water
- Electricity cables (in the walls and floors)
- Anti-lightening protection (on the roof)
- Plumbing and drainage system (in the walls and floors)
- Ventilation pipes to every room
- Underfloor heating pipes, radiator pipes
- Internal plaster (on the walls and ceilings)
- Final layer of concrete on all 3 floors
- Top floor ceilings (plasterboard)
- Granite windowsills
- External roller blinds
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Summary of the accounts for 2019
Now we’d like to share with you a quick summary of the accounts for 2019. We want to do this for the purpose of openness and accountability. The Prayer House belongs to the Father. It is something that He will use to bring transformation in this place of death. And since a number of you have supported financially, we believe it’s important to share how the money was spent.
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- We started 2019 with the “raw build” of the house and 14 300 zł (€ 3 400) in the bank.
- During 2019 we received 474 000 zł (€ 111 300) in donations.
- We spent 447 800 zł (€ 105 200) on the building in 2019.
- We spent 4 800 zł (€ 1 100) on other expenses such as electricity, land tax, water, bank charges, website and stationery.
- At the end of 2019 we were left with 35 700 zł (€ 8 400) in the bank and a vastly improved building!
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The excess funds in the bank at 31.12.2019 was for work that we had scheduled in January 2020. Also, in 2019, we had ordered and paid for some products that were to be installed in 2020. In particular, a deposit for the front entrance door of the Prayer House (see photo later), lights for the Prayer Room and over 150 square metres of floor tiles. Thank you, Father, for all that You have magnificently done to bring us this far!!
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Quality and Beauty
So now we come to 2020 and the next phase of the building…
On the inside of the building, we’ve come to the place when we can start to make the house look beautiful. This is a wonderful part of the project, because you get to see the building transformed.
Right from the beginning we felt the Lord say, “make My House beautiful”. The House of Prayer should reflect His beauty and glory – in contrast to the ugliness of Auschwitz-Birkenau. He also said, we should “not cut corners”, which means we are not to do things in a quick, cheap way. What we put in the house, should last for a lifetime.
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This affects the products and materials we buy. We are looking for high quality products that look good, last a long time, and need little maintenance. That doesn’t necessarily mean the most expensive, but the products we buy tend to be above average. We are also looking for skilled workers who will do their work with excellence. Mark was a project manager before the Lord called us to Poland, so he knows how to manage contracts and negotiate the best prices.
Here’s a photo of the front entrance that we ordered last year and installed a few weeks ago.
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It was amazing to find this trumpet design in the catalogue. Here it represents the Shofar, the trumpet of God.
The Prayer House has the ministry of a Shofar. We engage heaven, see and hear what the Father is doing, and declare His purposes on the earth. That doesn’t mean we’ll be blowing shofars all day! But the Father wants to release His sound to call for the Restoration of Israel – the Jewish People back to FULL SONSHIP, through Yeshua their Messiah.
Here are a couple of photos of the floor that we put down in January 2020. We used ceramic tiles because we have underfloor heating, but the floor looks like natural wood.
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And here is a photo of the Prayer Room as it is at the moment.
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Summary of work still to be done
The Prayer House is a big building if you compare it with a normal family house. It has 3 levels (basement, ground floor and top floor) and a usable area of over 500 square metres.
The following is a list of things that still needs to be done to finish the building.
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Immediate essentials to be done
This year we have to finish the outside of the building from the roof down to the basement. The outside needs soffits, insulation and finishing. This is a big job, and we’ve commissioned a specalist company to do this work in June.
We also need a final skim plaster on all the walls and ceilings (nearly 1200 square metres), so we’ve booked another specialist company to do this work in July.
And then we need an ecological cesspit… Without a cesspit there are no working toilets, and we definitely need some toilets in the house!
To finish the inside of the building…
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- Ceramic floor tiles for the basement
- A specialist dance floor for the Prayer Room
- On top of that, an engineered wooden floor for the Prayer Room
- A wooden staircase to the internal balcony in the Prayer Room
- Flooring for the rest of the upstairs
- Stairs & handrails, ground floor to top floor
- Stairs & handrails, ground floor to basement
- 4 x bathrooms
- 7 x toilets
- 34 x internal doors
- A moving wall between dining area and lounge
- Kitchen
- Light switches, sockets and controls
- Light fittings
- Ventilation system equipment
- Stair lifts to the top floor and basement
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To finish the outside of the building…
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- Outside balconies and handrails
- Rain water drainage system
- A terrace outside of the patio windows
- Level the ground
- Finish the entrance steps including a platform lift for the disabled
- And eventually the garden with path, fencing, gates, flower beds, etc…
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And then, of course, some furniture…
People often ask us, “when will the Prayer House be finished?”. We have a few puzzle pieces from the Lord, but we don’t know for sure. What we do know is that the Father is working to a plan and that He is steadily outworking that plan. So, we can say with confidence, “it will be ready on time!”. His time!
However, our goal is to do as much as we can as quickly as we can. Of course, finances play a part in this, but we don’t wait for the money before we start something – we usually have to take a step of faith. The Father is teaching us to trust Him. Timescales are also dependent upon contractors, who can be booked up 6-8 months in advance, and lead times for products can often be as long as 4 months.
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Finally, we want to thank all of you who have partnered with the Father to build this House of Prayer so far. I’m sure we’ve said this before, but when we started out on this journey, we asked the Father how He would provide the finances for the Prayer House. And He said, “I will stir people’s hearts”. So, for those who have given financially, thank you so much for allowing your heart to be stirred and for responding to the Holy Spirit!
With our love and blessings
Mark & Cathy
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*** Bitte beachten Sie, daß unsere EURO-BANKKONTO hat sich WIEDER geändert (unser drittes Bankkonto!). Das liegt daran, daß unser Bankpartner umgezogen ist. Unsere neuen EURO-Bankdaten finden Sie weiter unten. Wir entschuldigen uns für die Unannehmlichkeiten.
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For those who would like to partner with the Lord in building the Prayer House:
United Kingdom (£)
UK bank account for non-gift-aided donations:
Account holder: Fundacja Living Stones
Account no: 14740466
UK Sort-code: 23-14-70
For UK Tax-payers:
Please give through Stewardship (no account needed)
https://www.give.net/livingstones/oneoff
NEW EURO BANK ACCOUNT FROM 1-1-2020 (€)
Account holder (Kontoname): Fundacja Living Stones
IBAN: BE68 9670 1712 7334
SWIFT / BIC: TRWIBEB1XXX
[Our previous Euro bank account will remain open until 1-7-2020]
For more options (incl. Paypal and Polish Zloty Account)
See the donate page on our website for the all the various possible options of ways to give: https://livingstones.com.pl/donate.html
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Fundacja Living Stones
ul Boczna 4
32-600 Brzezinka Oświęcim
Poland
+48 519 433 612
f.livingstones@gmail.com
www.livingstones.com.pl
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