RMCNews with Don Lopes – Holyoke, Colorado … The Holyoke church members knew the roof on their church was in desperate need of being replaced, but they had no funds to cover the insurance deductible of $4,400, at least not until a local roofing company decided to help the church with this need.

In the spring of 2020, a member from another Adventist congregation, who works for a roofing company, inspected the roofs for the Northeastern Colorado churches and confirmed what the members already knew–the roof on their church had to be replaced.

Members were very hesitant to file a claim because of the deductible knowing the funds were not available.

“We were hesitant, at first, to make a claim because we knew that we would have to pay the $4,400 deductible and didn’t know where we were going to get such funding. We prayed for our roof and our church for a few months. Then we determined that we must fix the roof and we set out in faith that God would provide the deductible,” Don Lopes, pastor of Northeastern Colorado District said.

After the insurance adjuster reviewed the roof, he gave the insurance documents to the church for their review. Then the roofing company representative reviewed the adjuster’s notes and showed church members what they could do themselves to save on initial costs. This was a bonus as other smaller jobs needed to be done which would also cost the church.

It turned out to be a tremendous blessing to the small church.

“We had two options–to hire out the non-roof-related jobs or do the work ourselves. If we were to do the work ourselves, we would have enough to cover the deductible and more than $2000 to do the other non-roof repairs. So, we decided to do the job ourselves,” Lopes said.

Now with a new roof, “members are rejoicing since they no longer have to deal with water inside the church when it rains,” Lopes added. The members plan to work on the non-roof-related items later in the spring and summer.

“We are so excited [about] how God is helping to repair our building and make it a more beautiful mission center for the Holyoke community,” Lopes concluded.

–Don Lopes is pastor of the Northeastern Colorado District; photo supplied