You probably haven't noticed it nearly as much as I have... But it's been a loooooong time since I've really had anything to say about our church's relocation process (the last substantial update on this blog was back in February!).  Over the last several months, we've undergone an agonizing ordeal of business negotiations and legal positioning as the situation with the H88 facility went from complicated and difficult to more complicated and more difficult...

In particular, we ran into issues with the renovation costs (which, at one point, had been estimated to end up approximately three times more than the original estimate under which we signed the contract) and with the maximum attendance allowance by the fire marshall (although the contract explicitly stipulated an allowance for at least 120, the initial permission granted by the fire marshall -- after all of those expensive renovations -- was only for 81 people... and even after the number was later brought up to 100, our problem was still not solved).  Indeed, there have been times over the last several months when the situation with the H88 seemed truly impossible.  We and the building owner stood at the brink of a court case on a number of different occasions.  I didn't write much on the ol' blog about these various trials and tribulations because I was fearful of the fact that anything I wrote could have and would have been used against me in a court of law... Seriously.  It was that intense.

Thus, it was incredible surprise this week when we finally reached an agreement with the owner of the H88 that should have us meeting in there relatively soon (I've now learned to avoid expectations for any particular date)!  Despite the odds, we and the owner settled on an agreement securing permission for at least 120 people and distributing responsibility for the extra renovation costs that have been incurred along the way.  Of course, in the give-and-take of business negotiations, we -- like the owner -- had to make some concessions to reach this agreement; however, the final agreement still kept us within our means, and it has definitively provided for eventual allowance of at least 120 people (and maybe even as many as 150, now that they’re going to have to put in a second fire exit after all).  The actual timelines are still working themselves out, but at any rate—we are now moving forward again!  Hallelujah!