Where thieves break through and steal. Our A/C has been stolen.

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:  (20)  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:  (21)  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (Mat 6:19-21)

We are building a temple for one purpose only - the facilitate the laying up of treasure in Heaven. The parish temple is a critical part of the life of the parish.

If we do not pray together, frequently. with compunction and theological correctness, we are nothing, no matter what else we think we are. All the services, and especially, preeminently (but never alone, that is the only service ever celebrated!) the celebration of Divine Liturgy and the partaking of the "bread from Heaven" is the lifeblood of the parish family.

Our temple is important,and has been quite costly in terms of worldly measurements. There have been many delays, difficulties, and problems that can only be understood as part of the attacks of the spirits of the air. We are now enduring another attack. Although human thieves stole our air conditioning units in the dead of night yesterday, we must see the spiritual ramifications of this act of defilement. The thieves defiled themselves by their breaking of God's law, and may God have mercy on them, and lead them to amend their lives.

How will we react to this stunning setback? To answer correctly, we need only remember why we are building the temple. It is for the salvation of our souls, and as we are growing in holiness, the temple will be a place that will shine to the community, and many others will be warmed by our light, and its light. We are building the temple primarily to pray, and to preach the Gospel, by our words and actions.

This is a time of extreme need for us, as a people, since we have no funds available. Will we react to this setback as Christians do, or will we merely be angry, or passively disappointed?

Perhaps someone reading this will wish to give us alms to help. I am certainly hoping this is the case, and am reaching out to all our friends - those in the community and those many hundreds of thousands (over a half million people last year) who read our blog and website. We need monetary help.

We as a people must be worthy of this help, by doing everything to save our souls, and therefore, having the capacity and ability to reach out to others, and be a light that is set on a table in McKinney.

Adopt-a-tree drive and building updates

2010 is a joyous time for the small community of St. Nicholas in McKinney (Dallas area), Texas. By God's grace and thanks to the generosity of many people inside and outside our small community, our new temple is nearly complete. We will finally be able to leave the temporary facility which has been our home for 16 years and glorify God in a new, beautiful temple. It is looking like our first Liturgy in the new facility will occur shortly after the feast of Ascension.

However, our situation is very difficult financially. Landscaping and parking lot costs have caught us by surprise, and we are struggling to pay our bills. We have sought a second loan from our bank, and are waiting for more news about this.

Whether or not we are able to get a loan, we need to raise more funds to meet these expenses. We have launched a "sponsor a tree" drive to pay for a portion of our additional costs. Anybody willing to help is encouraged to visit our building fund page: http://orthodox.net/aboutus/building-fund.html. You can also follow the sponsor-a-tree drive at our progress page here>, which is updated weekly.

Thank you for your help!