We have signed a 12 month lease with Modbury Hospital for the Education Centre from January 2010. This is fantastic is so many ways. The Centre includes a 220 seat auditorium, a conference room (for kids ministry), a smaller room for creche, a kitchen and has at least 120 parking spaces. It places us opposite Westfield Plaza and in the midst of Modbury triangle: the regional and retail hub of the North-East. We are close to the O-Bahn exchange and even Water World! The hospital community includes a Residential College for over 200 overseas students (Torrens Valley INternational Residence), so the opportunities for us to have a global impact for the gospel is exciting.
And yet… it was really hard to find a venue for church meeting. After looking at over 65 places the biggest obstacles were:
1. Sunday sport: this is the religion of the North East! Any gymnasium/hall/etc has a waiting list of sporting groups trying to get their place in the sun. The Council is inundated with requests for funding from Sporting Clubs as well as pleadings to build new facilities.
2. Seating capacity: There were plenty of small halls and rooms for hire, but very few (2 in fact!), that could lease us a space for 50+ people.
3. Our standards: I quickly realised that our standards we quite high! We required seating space for 50+, ample car parking, kitchen facilities, 2+ rooms for creche/kids/youth ministry and somewhere to land my learjet!
So we are very thankful for the provision of the Modbury Hospital Education Centre!
