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~ I ROSEVILLE COVENANT CHURCH 2865 N. HAMLlNE AVENUE * ROSEVILLE MN 551 13 (651) 633.5526 x' fax (651) 633.1537 September 22, 2000 Mr. John Kysylyczyn Mayor 3083 Victoria Street North Roseville, MN 55113 As a church, we believe that God has called us to serve this community. We have been an active and integral part of this neighborhood for over 40 years and look forward to being a good and trusted friend of the community for many years to come. If the City Council takes action to grant the conditional use pennit to the Bingo Hall, it will be like a dagger in the heart ofRoseville Covenant Church. Please indulge me for a minute of explanation. In 1997, many of you helped us along our journey from our original building on the corner of"C" and Hamline to our current sight. Those were exciting days and we are grateful for your guidance and encouragement. But these were also tragic days for us as a congregation. You may not have heard the whole story of our journey. On August 10, the day that we left our old building, we also lost our Senior Pastor. About a month later it came out that he had a severe gambling addiction. A compulsive, bet-the-rent, lie-about-everything, loose-the-fann kind of habit. He was stripped of his ministry credentials, lost his job at the church, his self-respect and many friends. He went bankrupt and has spent hundreds of hours in personal and family counseling to deal with his problem. It is only by the grace of God that we, as a congregation survived. The stress of building a new campus combined with our Senior Pastor leaving in disgrace was extremely discouraging and at one point almost split the church. We lost beloved members, had to bring in outside help to deal with emotional wounds and some difficult financial pressures. Now, 3 years later we are finally able to look past that difficult time and look forward. But needless to say, as a congregation we are very sensitive about a gambling facility going in across the street.