AUSTRALIA—From mid-February to mid-March, Australian regional office staff and local Sydney members experienced a multitude of blessings and miracles in connection with the office move. From setting up crucial Internet connectivity to mounting clocks on the wall, each part came together into an upgraded, fully functional facility. Since the office opened on March 16, staff and volunteers say they have come to realize just how many fine points and large details coincided to make for a successful office move and setup.

Location: Local member Ross Macdonald searched out potential office locations for PCG chief financial officer Andrew Locher and Regional Director John Macdonald to inspect together. The list of final choices made it all the way to the desk of Pastor General Gerald Flurry for approval. While awaiting the decision, Ross Macdonald kept checking on the North Wollongong facility, hoping it had not been taken. When he received approval, he immediately called the real estate agent, and remarkably the property was still available. Since two months had gone by, the seller was motivated to negotiate a significantly lower price for the facility.

Wall Clocks:  Staffers saw a much smaller but interesting occurrence involving a set of five clocks that were stored away at the previous office. Mr. John Macdonald wanted the new office reception area to mirror headquarters, with a set of labeled clocks on the wall representing the time zones where pcg offices are located. Initially, the clocks on hand seemed unsuitable. After four weeks looking for suitable alternatives, while renovating the new office, the original set clocks ended up matching the feature wall color.

Floor Coverings: Most of the new office floors are tiled, except for a few rooms that needed new carpet. After ripping out the old carpet, the staff planned to either use tile to match the rest of the floor, or to purchase less-expensive new carpet. During one of the work parties, a volunteer mentioned that a local member worked at a factory that produces carpet tiles, and that he might be able to get a discount. It turned out that months ago, the member had picked up some spare ones from work that were being discarded. The tiles, which had remained in his garage for over a year, ended up working well, and there were just enough of them to cover the floors in the mail, server and storage rooms.

Pictures:  Mr. John Macdonald wanted to hang large pictures of Herbert and Loma Armstrong and Gerald and Barbara Flurry in the office reception area. The Philippines office had these photos, and duplicated them and sent them to Australia. This ended up costing less than having the process done in Australia. When they were mounted on the wall, the background behind the Armstrongs and Flurrys perfectly matched the suede effect on the feature wall, a color which had been finalized separately two weeks prior.

Forklift: Since the office warehouse required a forklift, a volunteer worked to locate one online that fit the required budget and specifications. Member Dale Abblitt, a licensed forklift driver and technician, was enlisted to help inspect prospective purchases. Since Abblitt works full-time, coordinating time to view suitable forklifts proved challenging and time-consuming. But one day, the property owner of the new office facility offered to let the staff use his forklift. He insisted on getting spare keys cut for it, and he actually relocated his own office to the back of the same complex. The forklift is now parked right outside the warehouse door for pcg staff to use anytime. The owner has shown generous favor toward the pcg, also offering the use of his truck for discounted trips to the garbage dump, which was needed during the setup week. He commented to one member, without knowing he was with the pcg, that the church is “extremely nice to deal with.”

Handyman Work:  The staff obtained the new office keys on February 27, but a massive amount of work, including renovation and painting, needed to be completed in order to open on March 16. Sydney deacon Ben Klusenberg, a professional painter, was qualified to do the painting, but needed a lot of time to complete it. Yet he had coincidentally booked time off for his anniversary plus an extra week afterwards, even though he said he wasn’t sure at the time why he did so. This extra week coincided with the last week of prep work before the grand opening, enabling Klusenberg to devote 78 volunteer hours that week.

Staff Relocation:Regional office staff members Kirsten Davison and Sherry Pfotenhauer lived about 10 minutes away from the previous office location in Narellan, but the new office was an hour away. Pfotenhauer’s lease came up for renewal at the same time as the office move was approved. Davison thought her lease expired at the end of March, but her real estate agent informed her that her lease hadn’t been renewed, so she was unknowingly in a month-to-month contract. She only needed to provide a three-week notice, and the time between her getting approved for a new apartment and the day of the scheduled move was three weeks. Both women immediately started looking for houses near the new office. They each saw a unit available one night, and told the other about it the next day. They were surprised to discover that the units were in the same complex, only two doors away from each other. Within a week after applying for them, they were approved. “We really felt God opened the doors for us prior to us even knowing the office was being relocated,” Pfotenhauer said. Their personal moves coincided with the office move. “We were working and packing [the office] during the day and packing our homes during the night,” she said. They now carpool on the 20-minute drive to work.

Security Setup: The Sydney congregation hosted a garage sale a month before the office opening.A member asked his boss to donate used items from his garage to sell at the fundraiser. Among the items was a large black box that stood out from everything else. Members discovered that it was an eight-channel security system that had never really been used. Mr. Macdonald was informed of the find, and it was reserved to be used for the new office’s security system, saving the office a couple hundred dollars.

Networking:  Telstra monopolizes the Internet and phone connection services in Australia, and office staff encountered several connection issues with the company during the relocating process. Ross Macdonald, who has indirect connections with Telstra, was assigned the task of setting up the new office’s phone and Internet systems. The goal was to have those systems fully operational by the day that pcg employees Benjamin Tauer and Reniel Padua arrived to set up the computer network and server. But Telstra repeatedly delayed activating its service to the office, pushing closer and closer to the deadline. The phone systems were set up by the deadline, but not the Internet. The same day Tauer and Padua arrived, Ross Macdonald called a Telstra worker he had met the day before, and asked him if it was possible for his company to “flick the switch,” so the office could finally connect to the Internet. Miraculously, the worker agreed and the Internet started to work within an hour of Tauer and Padua arriving at the office.