The Oasis Story Ch 1

               CHAPTER ONE

                          THE OASIS - A PLACE OF REFRESHING,
                     ENCOURAGEMENT & CHALLENGE
                        PROVIDED BY GOD & DEDICATED TO HIS GLORY
                             - a very brief insight into the story so far

In May 1996, a Christian friend was visiting us for the launch of the Joshua Project and was attracted, by the Lord, to a large derelict property called the Puffin Hotel. It was located on three and a half acres of prime land, just off the A55 Expressway, in a lovely location on the North Wales coastline set between the sea and the mountains and overlooking Anglesey, Puffin Island, and the Great Orme in Llandudno. We prayed, at his request, on the actual grounds of the Hotel and the presence of the Lord was awesome, with a mighty anointing coming on all those present. The Spirit of the Lord spoke very clearly and directly into the situation and confirmed that this was God's direction and that He wanted to use this building for His work and His Glory. He also said something quite staggering - that as we saw the place in the natural, totally broken down, derelict, with 52 broken windows, great holes in the roof, all the fixtures and fittings either ripped out or smashed, walls and ceilings damaged, so He saw His Church in the region.—As in ihe natural, so in the spiritual. But He said that the building would be restored and so would His Church. When He moved, He would do a quick work! The previous year, planning permission had been granted for the premises to be converted and extended to become a 30 bedroomed express-way Motel, but no-one had bought it!

FORWARD IN FAITH

As we all prayed, our friend felt the Lord gave him a definite figure that we
should offer, in faith, for the property and it was tens of thousands of pounds
less than the original asking price! However, the figure God gave him was
amazingly accepted over the telephone and we were given permission to
start work on restoring the building with immediate effect! (A couple of days
after the purchase was agreed, developers tried to buy it.)We had
accumulated a few thousand pounds in our building fund, but that was
small change compared with the need! However, the Lord provided,
in a wonderful way, the remainder of the finance we needed to complete
the purchase. On 10th of July 1996 we had to be out of our old building and we

moved our meetings to the new Oasis - even though it was extremely
derelict, and sometimes meetings finished in the dark as we had no