St. Martin’s Anglican Church began with a few members in various borrowed locations. Within a short period of time, the Lord provided a small country chapel located in farmland surrounding the town of Ocala, FL. Although far to the Northwest of the little town and directly across from a major rock quarry, the faithful congregation trusted in the leading of our Lord and signed a mortgage for the little chapel. Shortly thereafter, a small pre-built home and land just next door was added.

Our Lord is so very gracious to the courageous hearts of our parish family. The rather large rock quarry across the street is now one of the largest and most beautiful golf courses and clubhouse in Central Florida with plans for the construction of a number of clubhouse homes on the 1,000+ acres remaining.

Within the last 18 months donations from members of our congregation, now 266% larger than three years ago, allowed us to completely refurbish our country chapel with pews built to order, new floors, new windows, new doors, new lighting, and sound system. To our wonder, donations were made to create the first phase of a small garden; plant materials placed around our chapel through a design provided by a local landscape artist. A short time later, God provided donations through our parish family to complete our garden in the spring of this year with the installation of pavers, lighting, fountain, and statuary in our new ‘St. Francis Prayer Garden.’ We will now, truly, be a ‘country chapel in the garden.’

Finally, our Lord led clergy to our church from other parts of our country. We are now able to greatly increase our use of the previous ‘gifts’ in so many new and beautiful ways!

The Lord has provided to our little church. It is now time to share these gifts with our surrounding community. We cannot even imagine what the Lord has in store for us, but, we will once again, prayerfully step out in Faith!