Adelante Thrift Experiences Breakthrough

Written by Kristen Allen, Community Development Director

Our journey towards sustainable community development has been a long one. In December of 2012, the Adelante Thrift Board met for the first time to move forward with plans for a thrift store that provides jobs, job training, and generates revenue for future community development initiatives. We’ve prayed, we’ve planned, and we’ve practiced patience while we wait for God to move and show us a clear path or a clear no. It has been challenging, but has also helped to refine our thrift board and solidify our vision.

After walking a twenty month path, we felt that July 31, 2014, would be the final day for Adelante Thrift to secure a space or feel confident that God had said “not now” for this ministry. At the beginning of July we submitted a final offer for a space we had investigated and the entire board felt peace that we had surrendered this to God and we would move forward according to what was revealed during the final month.

We have a talented Adelante Thrift board who knows business and desires for this ministry to succeed. It might have been easy for us to try and force through the process and make something happen just to see something come of our efforts. We could have changed communities. We could have tried to take a space that didn’t meet our criteria. Instead, we did what may have been the hardest path and that was surrendering to God and staying true to what we believed was the best vision for this project and our community.

Seven days before our deadline, we experienced our first victory when the landlord responded favorably to our final offer. Five days later, we received our 501(c)3 designation from the IRS that we had been waiting for since May of 2013. We had previously been told that our application had been passed on for further review and would require additional development, so we feel these two items coming so close to our deadline could only be described as breakthrough.

We are currently negotiating our lease for the former Hollywood Video at 38th and State. Please continue to pray for us. Ideally we would have the lease signed by the end of this month and then would immediately start fundraising and construction. We look forward to sharing more news from Adelante Thrift and until then we are praising God for showing us His perfect timing.

If you are interested in helping to move Adelante Thrift forward, fill out an interest form to join the Adelante Thrift Action Team to help launch sustainable community development in our community.