The building and finances

• A meeting place for believers with New Testament values.
• A base to reach out into the community to serve the poor. 
• To provide a way to achieve financial independence from donations from our Western friends.
• A base to train leaders and plant Churches across the Balkans, modelling a new way of ‘doing Church’.

  The building:

• 10 minutes walk from the city centre, good public transport links, parking, very prominent.
• Deliberately not overtly a Church building - providing some protection from vandalism and attack.
• 80 people can meet in the main room. With minor adjustments the building can accommodate up to 150 people.
• Building footprint is 125m² (on a piece of land approx 200m².) Current building is 2 storeys high (250m² total).
• Foundations will allow construction of a further 3 storeys.

• The building has been legally purchased by Aylsham Community Church for
  
  £90,000.
• £55,000 has been paid by Norfolk Churches.
• Aylsham Community Church is currently paying the mortgage of £35,000.
• Norfolk Churches are trying to find an additional £35,000 for initial refurbishment to be able to better reach out into the community and enable financial sustainability.  
• Fundraising is very difficult because of the poor perception of Serbia.
• The long term intention is to give the building to Good News Church, Nis but this can only be done when the mortgage is paid off and the political situation is stable.

• Refurbish basement as a language school – as the clients for this will be English speakers and business people the language school cannot be launched until refurbishment has taken place. The school will be run by Sonja who is currently professor of language at the university. Income from this school would enable financial independence.
• Create a high quality meeting venue with coffee bar to be used for a range of community activities – youth, students, meeting place for church.
• Convert two rooms into multi function community rooms.

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