A MYSTERY donation has been seen as a 'gift from God' for a church.
When the Rev David Kemble picked up an envelope which had been posted through the door at IrthlingboroughMethodistChurch, he was not to know it contained the promise of £50,000. But now the church and its congregation can get going on an estimated £200,000 refurbishment to make the interior of the church more flexible for use by church members and the wider community. Rev Kemble said: "We just found the letter posted through the door on a Sunday last month and you can't imagine how delighted we were – it was an answer to our prayers. "We were looking at transforming the church to make it a more flexible space for community and church events and had raised about £20,000 towards the estimated £150,000 to £200,000 cost, so to receive this amount in one go is just amazing." The envelope contained a note from charity Stewardship, which handles donations on behalf of people who wish to stay anonymous, and the money was handed to the church last week. The Rev Kemble added: "It's given us the confidence to move to the next step, which is hiring an architect to draw up plans and get estimates before Christmas, so we can perhaps start work next year. "We want to install indoor toilets for the disabled, renovate the kitchen, replace the pews with removable seating, improve the areas of worships and decorate a room at the back of the church which can hold 50 people. "We will never know who donated the money, although we can write to them via the charity, but we want them to know we are very grateful."
