“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Genesis 1:1-2

From the midst of darkness, emptiness, nothingness and confusion, God spoke and six days later the magnificent, perfect and complete world was created. Not only do these words describe the condition in the very beginning of time, but they also describe the mental and emotional state of many of us in the core group during June and July of 2002.

We were bewildered about then and the present and definitely uncertain about the future, but while in the midst of confusion, nothingness , bewilderment and uncertainty, God spoke and Life Community Church (Formerly Life Ministries) came forth.

Our first service was held on July 7^th, 2002 in the Prime Minister’s Salon, Crown Plaza, Royal Oasis with seventy-seven (77) persons in attendance. Plans were immediately put into motion to reserve and register the name and organization with the Registrar’s Office and company officers were appointed. Although the church was still in the embryonic stage, we began our search for a meeting place other than the hotel, while simultaneously inquiring about land from the local authorities. But this did not stop the ministry from moving forward.

After several months in the Prime Minister’s Salon, we were moved to the Royal Oasis Country Club. Although our main location in the Country Club was the Lancelot Room we were shuffled around the hotel so often that it became a guessing game of which room would we be in next.

Life Community Church held services in almost every meeting room in the Country Club. Yet we kept our focus, continued our worship and maintained our love for one another.

During those first two years in the hotel, we had challenges of meeting room schedules, noise, storage of our weekly service supplies and as a revelation to us, the reluctance of people to attend or join a church that was meeting in a hotel. Yet we remained steadfast to our resolve that God is in this with us.

In our second year, we became officially constituted and registered with the Bahamas Government, which put us in a position to make application to the Grand Bahama Port Authority to obtain land for the construction of our ministry’s campus. Contrary to the talk in the market, that we are the proverbial “Johnny come lately”, and many before us had been waiting for up to seven years without a response, we should be prepared.

Well true to form of our Great God, Pastor received a letter from the Port Authority acknowledging the receipt of our application for land and a request to make an appointment to meet with the appropriate authorities. In that meeting Pastor was presented with available plots of land, and given the privilege to list in preferential order three sites.

About three months later, the Port Authority officially granted us three acres of land in Grasmere. This was a time of great jubilation, although the portion granted was not our chose. Immediately we began laying out our church campus on the site that was granted to us.

It was the desire of Pastor Beckles to have a ministry in the heart of a community and although grateful for the plot of land given by the Port Authority, he knew that if we were to build on this plot, this would be going against the grain of his heart’s desire. But he continued on with his plans to establish our ministry in Grasmere.

Still in possession of the property from the Port Authority, Pastor and his wife went for a drive looking for property in the heart of a community. Believe it or not he drove pass a stretch of land along Polaris Drive and casually said to his wife that this would be a great place for a church. But he never mentioned it to anyone else.

God is still on the throne. Weeks later he was informed by Kendal and Jennifer Williams that they we acquiring a large plot of land on Polaris Drive for a housing development, yet he still did not mentioned his interest in the land that he had seen. God knows our heart and desires.

Then Kendal & Jennifer approached Pastor with the desire to donate four acres of land to the church. When Pastor viewed the land that was the proposed donation, it was exactly the area that he had mentioned to his wife as a good site for a church.

Praise to our God and King. In a surprise move, Pastor spoke to the congregation seeking their approval to return the plot of land to the Port Authority because their time stipulation for development of the land was eighteen months.

Pastor’s development preference was the Caravel Beach area. The congregation agreed and in an unprecedented move, the land was officially returned to the Port Authority.

Well in 2004 our hotel journey came to an end at the hands of the two noted ladies of Grand Bahama Francis and Jean. Oh, that’s hurricanes Francis and Jean.

The Country Club was extensively damaged forcing us to begin our search for a meeting space. At this point in our Ministry’s shot life we had grown to an average attendance of just over 100 persons. This blessing actually became a problem for us in our search for a meeting place.

All of the commercial space that was available and large enough to house us was well out of our financial abilities and those that were within our financial reach were too small for our congregation.

Our search finally ended when Pastor Beckles approached the leadership of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church to entertain the possibility of us using their facilities.

This opening again reassured us that God was actively working on our behalf.

LCC shared the Lutheran’s building for two years. During these two years we launched our Stewardship campaign to secure a three-year building pledge from our people to plan and construct this present structure.

The Lutheran’s need their space for expansion, thus we had to move and although incomplete, on October 7^th, 2007 in celebration move entitled “From Tenant to Owner” we occupied our building.

God has been more than abundantly gracious to LCC. We now own five acres of land and a building worth just over one million dollars in six short years. To God be the Glory.

But our greatest joy over the past six years has been the lives that have been challenged and changed, marriages restored, the sick healed, lives changed through salvation, baptisms, submission to God’s way and the teamwork that God so marvelously worked among us.

Let God be forever praised.