None of us would take issue with the concept of God’s faithfulness, though we don’t often have tangible, concrete evidence of it. Sure, when things work out well, or when we have a sense of peace and security in the midst of difficulties, we acknowledge his faithfulness. This is more normally the case. But there are times in our lives when we can pont to something quite specific and say, “God is indeed faithful!”

I submit that the past decade has yielded many such examples, particularly in relation to the HBF building project. When we decided to move forward with the idea in November 2000, who could have imagined what we have today? And, we certainly could not have planned and predicted a lot of the provision that enabled us to do it. The psalmist declares the faithfulness and power of the works of God’s hands. He did not directly do the work, but this is a reminder that we are indeed his hands - what he uses to accomplish his work. We had a window of opportunity for several years where skilled people with flexible schedules were available to do the work; that window is now closed. We also had steady contributions that enabled us to fund it. And, we had many opportunities to acquire needed materials and furnishings at greatly reduced (or no) cost that we could never have predicted. Did God do all this because we are worthy, because we deserved it? No; it’s because he is gracious, and because we were willing to move forward in faith. Not that we didn’t plan - we did. But as we trusted him, he did not fail to provide.

I further submit that this has been the case for the whole of HBF’s existence. The church is quite different from the band of several young families that first met in someone’s living room in 1985. Yet, our core principles and emphases have not changed. Many have come and gone; some have tried to remake us into something else and some left because we weren’t what they wanted. Yet God has provided. The same principles eluded to at the end of the last paragraph apply here as well. This is HBF’s 25th anniversary year. I would like to celebrate it accordingly, praising him for his faithfulness. Specifically, I am suggesting that we have an event in May or June (HBF began in May ‘85). I would like to invite past HBFers back to help us celebrate. And, here’s the challenge: to get the building as completed as possible by then. This could be a great time, as we look back over what God has done and look forward to what he will continue to provide!