The Kuna (Idaho) Church will celebrate its 25th anniversary Apr. 15–16. The celebration will climax a banner year which included construction of a brand-new sanctuary, nine new Sabbath School rooms, and renovation of the original structure.
“We hope many former and present Kuna Church family members will join us for our anniversary celebration,” John Kurlinski, church pastor, says. “The Friday evening program will begin at 7:30 and the Sabbath program at 9:30 a.m. Several former Kuna pastors, including Phillip Samaan and Jack Sequeira, are scheduled to participate.
For many years the Kuna congregation was small, but in the past seven years, the church has experienced explosive growth. Three years ago the tiny original sanctuary could no longer hold the congregation, so they moved—pews and all—into their multi-purpose gymnasium.
“But that was never intended to be a permanent fix,” Gary Crawford, head elder at the time of ground-breaking, explains. “With 90 active families and more than 100 children under the age of 18, our Sabbath School rooms were no longer large enough. Also, our kids needed their gym back, so we began fund-raising efforts.” The church moved ahead in faith to establish a building committee under the chairmanship of Nick Voth and began to work with the architect to plan a new facility.
Kuna placed most of its fund-raising efforts in achieving a 100 percent commitment from the congregation to pray daily for the building project. Finance committee chairman Milford Terrell and his wife Grace invited small groups of members to their home to hear about and pray for the building plans and financial needs. Each couple was given time to talk and pray together privately to make a financial commitment to the project and to commit again to daily prayer. No one except the donors and the treasurer knows the exact commitment each was led to make, but at the end of all these meetings, funds were available to enable the church to obtain a building loan to break ground and begin building. Monthly pledges are sufficient to pay back the building loan within seven years.
The new sanctuary and renovation were completed in mid-January. During announcement time on Christmas Day, the building committee and congregation presented a special gift to Pastor John and Barb Kurlinski to thank them for their tireless efforts to see us through construction. Nick Voth reported that Pastor John’s building skills probably saved the church $35,000 in construction costs. The gift included a certificate to a tool store to replace tools broken during building and a week’s vacation, including tickets and lodging.
The total renovation and construction added a 300-seat sanctuary, nine new Sabbath School rooms, and four new bathrooms. The project came in under budget and went only three weeks beyond the targeted completion date.
“Amazing things happen when people pray together,” Pastor John reminds us all. “God wants to give us buckets of blessings instead of the tiny thimblefuls we often ask for.”
For more information about the anniversary celebration plans, call (208) 922-4686 or e-mail ailsox@pacificpress.com.
The 25-year-old Kuna congregation has just completed a sanctuary construction and facility remodel. (Aileen Andres Sox)
Quinn Voth, son of Kuna building committee chairman Nick Voth, loves his earth-moving equipment. He brought it along to move some earth at our Mar. 13, 2004, ground-breaking.
Matthew Fritz joined the entire Kuna congregation when they broke ground for the new sanctuary in March. (Aileen Andres Sox)
