Help us grow + support an Orthodox parish
Draw Near has been in business 9 years now, and we’ve grown from the corner of a bedroom in Caroline’s house to now we’re taking up Marian’s entire basement and garage, and really out of space. We’ve been considering office options for a while now (renting, buying, etc), but have been waiting to discern God’s path for our future.
A couple weeks ago, totally by chance, Marian’s family went to the Greek church in town for liturgy. At the end of the liturgy, the parish council president shared that their building project (building a church hall/office/classroom building) has had some major unexpected expenses, and their only course of action is to sell a house that’s on their property to get the funding for these. Marian perked up her ears and talked to him after church about the possibility of Draw Near Designs purchasing the house to be our office. The church absolutely loves the idea of DND buying the house and moving there, we love the house, location is perfect, etc. Our priest thinks it’s a good idea. Everything is lining up except the business can’t get a loan because the zoning is currently residential. The church is in the process of applying for a rezoning for us, but it takes 6-9 months and they can’t wait that long for the money from the sale of the house. We also can’t get a residential loan because the current renters aren’t paying enough for the bank to consider it profitable cash flow. It is frustrating because the business can *afford* the loan, it’s just these details that are hindering it. We can take out personal loans to cover part of it, we have a down payment, but we need to fundraise $100,000 to be able to buy it.
We are loathe to ask people to support us in this way, because we really wish we could just get a loan and handle it ourselves. For many reasons it feels like God is leading us on this path, but as the doors to entirely fund it ourselves have closed, we are out of options except to humble ourselves and ask for help. Therefore, we are asking for donations toward this project. It would be such a boon to the church (and they are so kindly offering to sell us the house under market value because they want us to be the ones to buy it!), and of course a larger office would be a huge help for Draw Near Designs and would give us space hire help and continue to grow. We would appreciate a donation of any amount or just share this effort with someone who loves Draw Near Designs and supports our mission. We are hopeful that God will provide for this space for us, but if the fundraiser is not successful and this door closes, then we are at peace God has something else in store! If we are not able to meet our goal, then we will REFUND all donations.
This is the house in question, and the church is on the left. You can see why they don’t want to put it on the market to the public, since it is so close to the church!
We have until June 30th to raise $100,000 so that we can purchase this property from the church and allow them to finish building their parish center (its so beautiful already!). We will post updates on this page to let you know how far we are into our fundraising. Thank you so much for your support throughout the years! We are already amazed and humbled at how quickly God has smoothed this path for us and provided us with the resources to move forward with this dream.
Again, if you know someone who would like to support this mission of ours, please send this link to them. Please keep us in your prayers as we move forward with this!