Pastor Jason Carmean of the Lexington, Ohio, Grace Brethren Church (pictured), sent along the good news that the church has paid off its mortgage. Here is part of his message:

This last Sunday, we finished off our capital campaign to pay off our mortgage to the bank. Four years ago we started to take a one-time extra offering the Sunday before Thanksgiving. We also initially allowed people to give low-interest loans to the church as well, which were more than savings accounts were paying but less than our mortgage interest percent.

Sunday we had just under a $60,000 offering to finish our responsibility to the bank. We needed just a little more than $57,000.

We praise the Lord for this and the beginning of the financial freedom it is providing. We still have approximately $140,000 in loans that people gave, but those can be stretched out a little longer because of the agreement that we had.

Then last night, we had communion as well. It was great to have so many people reflect on the Lord’s goodness shown to Lexington in the good times and the tougher times over the years.

All in all, the day couldn’t have been much better!