In a move to redeem some prime real estate in South Florida, a Haitian church purchased a closed strip club with the intent of turning into God’s house.
Eglise Assemblee Evangelique de Christ in Boynton Beach, Fla., bought Platinum Showgirls strip club last spring for $600,000. Though the property was theirs, they couldn’t hold services in the building until it was renovated and up to code.
The problem: finances. Eglise Assemblee spent all its money to buy the building and had been paying high rent at an interim facility. That left them without money to wrap up the redemptive project.
Then came a seemingly divine intervention. Christ Fellowship, a Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., megachurch with four campuses, heard about the congregation’s plans and chipped in a $12,000 donation to help the Haitian church complete the remodeling.
“When we heard that they were converting a former strip club into a church we were thrilled to be a part of that,” said Tom Mullins, lead pastor of Christ Fellowship.
Mullins remembers the struggles their own church endured when they built their first facility. Christ Fellowship didn’t have enough funds to buy chairs, yet the church ordered chairs with faith that God would pay the bill. When the chairs arrived, they had an unsolicited donation that covered the cost of the chairs. So when Christ Fellowship found out that Eglise was in need of chairs as well, they knew they needed to buy the chairs. Ironically, Eglise had also ordered chairs in faith.
The church’s story hit the local media and other donations came in to help finish the rest of the Eglise’s renovations.
“Oh, Lord—I cannot explain it,” Dumont Pierre, Eglise pastor, told the Palm Beach Post. “For us, we consider this as a miracle.” —Jennifer LeClaire
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