Eric Camp for MS House District 111

For all the Oasis Church Family in Pascagoula and abroad:

I announced at the 11:30 Experience on Sunday that we would be returning to 2 worship Experiences beginning THIS WEEK at 9:00 and 11:00. I first want to thank everyone for being flexible with us as we added the 3rd worship experience Easter weekend and continued in that structure until we resolved the overcrowding in the Children’s Dept and parking areas. We know this change back to 2 Experiences will be temporary as we are experiencing major growth and at some point in the future will need to add another Worship Experience on a consistent basis. We decided on these times as it would be an easier transition from the current 3 Experience times and also those are the times we were meeting prior to Easter.

The Plan? For the parking area, the staff, leaders and dream team members will be parking in the far south overflow parking lot and on some of our adjacent property to the campus that is not designated for parking. This will help to open up parking spaces on the main parking lot and on the west overflow parking lot as well. Parking Lot Leaders Greeters will be parking you as you come onto the property. Please park where they direct you.

The Children’s Department is still a very busy place having over 150 kids on Sunday mornings and the late Experience is always the most crowded. First of all, we are asking all who can, consider moving to the 9:00 Experience if you are a regular 11:00 family to help AND for the 11:00, the children’s workers will move the older kids that are in “The Wave” to Higher Grounds for their study and discussion the 2nd half of the time they are there. Parents will be directed to Higher Grounds to pick your child up if her/she is in that group at the end of the 11:00 Experience. Thank you to all who are patient with us and for all the Dream Team members who are making it happen!

We are going to attempt this structure until we absolutely have to add the 3rd Experience permanently  or until we complete the construction of the addition we are needing to build. These are GREAT problems to have and we eager expect growth to continue as now over 1000 people call Oasis home! The future is bright!!

The facility addition… the vision is to expand the south lobby area and relocate the Administrative offices to an added office suite and relocate Higher Grounds to the ground level where the Admin offices are now. This would give the current Higher Grounds space to the Children’s Dept to give them a full running capacity in the Children’s building up to 300+ children at one time and designated youth ministries space. This would also make Higher Grounds easier accessible and expand the lobby area for easier transition and provide space for small groups to meet on campus throughout the week. This expansion has been drawn out and will add an additional 3000+ square feet to the existing main building with an estimated cost of $250,000 – $300,000.

With all this being said, funds are being raised now to help with the vision of expansion to the current building. You can make a contribution on the Oasis main webpage at https://oasisonline.tv/oc-connect designate it to building fund.

Questions have been asked about the relocation discussion that was talked about earlier in the year. At this time, there is not a facility in Pascagoula that is large enough that is available for us to acquire. The Old K-Mart building (Ingall’s) will not be available anytime soon and the cost of operations of that facility is larger than what we feel like we should accommodate as we can expand and/or build an entire new facility at less expense than the utilities and upkeep on that facility.

I hope this clarifies some of the questions that have been asked and gives you a clearer understanding where Oasis currently is and the vision before us. Thanks again for everyone for being flexible and generous in helping this vision and dream become a reality as we push forward being a life-giving church in South Mississippi loving Jesus and reaching people!

Have a great day and thanks again!!!

-Eric