Paul White was surrounded by about 20 children living in what once was a Haitian refugee camp.
Five years after a 2010 earthquake devastated their country, they still had so little.
Only two raised their hand when White asked one night in December 2014 how many attended school.
And just five had eaten that day.
The senior pastor at Faithbridge Church in Jacksonville was heartbroken.
The Jacksonville church had set up a ministry there years before to help people who had been dumped at the camp 5 miles outside of Port Au Prince.
Despite battling multimillion-dollar financial problems for years, Faithbridge remained dedicated to ministering to people at home and around the world.
That night, reality set in for White.
The church’s 33-acre property on McCormick Road was for sale. A foreclosure would likely be filed if no buyer was found.
Either way, a new owner could force Faithbridge to move. Then what would happen to the Southern Baptist church and its ability to help those in need?
“Our church is the only one here,” he said to himself that night in Haiti. “Who will take care of them if we can’t?”
White believes God answered him that night, assuring him enough of the church would stay together that would allow members to continue their humanitarian efforts.
“After that, I didn’t know how it was going to turn out, but I had a quiet confidence he was going to work that out,” White said.
About a year later, he met Toney Sleiman.
The Jacksonville businessman was looking for a site for another church when he came across Faithbridge’s property and learned it was in foreclosure.
White planned to use part of the site for the church and the rest to develop a shopping center.
When White heard Sleiman was interested in the property for another church, his heart sank. He knew Sleiman was a tough businessman and would likely develop the property.
This could be what forced the church to move after years of divine intervention had kept it there.
The property had been on the market for five years before the foreclosure.
White said he wanted to try to sell it instead of just walking away from the millions of dollars the church owed.
“I wanted to resolve the debts so we could hold our head high,” he said.
But for three years, each time it looked like a deal was reached and the church would have to move, the sale would fall through because of issues with zoning or loans.
When the last sale didn’t work out, White said the attorney for the bond company that owned the high-interest first note told him, “Paul, I think I’m fighting against the Lord.”
Faithbridge caught another break when no one met the required bid at the foreclosure auction.
Then Sleiman learned about the property. He met with White to share his plans to develop the site.
That’s when Sleiman learned about the church’s financial troubles, which White inherited when he arrived there more than eight years ago.
The pastor described the church’s previous administration as “well-intentioned” but said the debt total was more than 10 times the annual giving.
Sleiman also learned about the work the church was doing to help people locally and around the world. Not just in Haiti, but also Guatemala, Ecuador and India. So many people depended on the church.
He then had a meeting with White and the pastor of the other church and later attended a Sunday night service at the church. He described it as “pretty amazing.”
Sleiman wanted Faithbridge to have a shot at getting a loan for part of the property, which would require a down payment of about $1.3 million.
He knew that was likely out of reach for the church, which has about 600-700 people at its services weekly.
Sleiman talked to his brothers, Eli and Joe, about a way to help the church.
If Faithbridge could raise $800,000, would they agree that the company would give the remaining $500,000?
Not as a loan, but a gift.
Sleiman said the conversation took only five minutes.
White was astonished by the gift. He said the church then had about 45 days to find a lender, get the loan executed and raise $800,000.
By some miracle, all of that happened, and the church closed on its part of the site. White said Sleiman Enterprises has not closed on the part of the property it is developing.
The black cloud of uncertainty that had been hanging over the church is gone. White and Faithbridge are able to focus on what matters most: ministering to those in need.
And White no longer has to spend Sundays looking for new property.
The church is staying home.
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