Jesus keeps knocking on our doors, the doors of our lives. He doesn’t do this by magic, with special effects, with flashing lights and fireworks. Jesus keeps knocking on our door in the faces of our brothers and sisters, in the faces of our neighbors, in the faces of those at our side. – Pope Francis
While the Diocese of Venice requires any capital program to have a specific amount of funds deposited in the bank in order to break ground on new construction, St. John is not sitting still during the Build Our Future, Serve Our Past campaign. In fact, we have major renovations and planning going on right now to ensure we are repairing some of the issues of the past and ensuring the future of our church and other facilities. Here are just a few of the recent “upgrades”:
- Church and Adoration Chapel: New air conditioning system has been installed for the Adoration Chapel, Sacristy, and Cry Room. This multi-area system will ensure comfort for our Parish Family, visitors, clergy, and ministers. Previously, a single system operated those three distinct areas as a single location, which would mean some people would be extremely hot, while others would be freezing.
- Church Doors: New hardware has been placed on the front doors to our church. The donation of the doors by an amazing couple of our parish several years ago requires appropriate hardware that will stand up to the constant usage of our active church. This new hardware should no longer chip and make it easier to enter the church and be part of our Parish Family.
- Parish Life Center: A new roof has been approved for the PLC building, where leaks this past summer have caused various issues. In addition to this new roof, for the first time, St. John now has a preventative maintenance contract for all our roofing needs, which will extend the life of all our roofs and make sure we know what issues we may have before an emergency pops up.
These are just a few of the changes that you may notice. There are so many other improvements we are making, from the donation of the repainting of our parking lines, to the LED lighting replacements for our exterior and interior lighting. We are excited for this next chapter of Saint John the Evangelist, so we are getting started now!
As we develop and start the programs associated with our Build Our Future, Serve Our Past campaign for all members of our Parish Family, like the Catholic Adult Organization and CYO, we need our entire Parish Family to give in order to reach our additional goals. If you have any questions, please contact Joe Lichwalla, the Campaign Coordinator at 239-495-2001 or email: [email protected].
You can also learn more information about the Campaign at: www.sjecc.com/future