Save Greater Bethesda Church

I have lived in my community for nearly 40 years. I have been the Reverend at Greater Bethesda Missionary Baptist Church for the past nine years. I am also the President of the Fulton Heights Community Association. I was supervising Freddie Gray's community service at the time of the Baltimore Uprising. I love my community, and try to do as much as I can to make it a great place to live. 

I could lose my Church if I cannot raise $10,500 to pay off the tax lien on my church. In Baltimore,  the City can sell a tax lien on your property over an outstanding water bill. If you can't pay it back, you can have your home or church foreclosed on. I had a lien sold on my church for an incorrect water bill. 

In 2017, Chris Bryan, an investor with the company Tempest LLC continued to come to our community meetings, asking about properties in the neighborhood and offering to finance a property for our community association. We had lunch together and became friends. 

At the time, I was in the process of disputing our Church’s water bill with the Department of Public Works. We had been billed $85,000, but the bills had been sent to somebody else's PO Box. We don’t even have a PO box. The Department of Public Works said they would investigate. We could not get the case resolved in time to prevent our Church from being added to the tax sale list. The lien was purchased by Tempest LLC - by the investor who had been coming to our community meetings.

I discovered that Chris Bryan, the same investor who was coming to our meetings, was the person who bought the water lien on our property. When I confronted him, he told me outright that he was out to make money, not to help out homes and churches.

Last month they resolved the $85,000 bill, and the Department of Public Works has agreed that it was, in fact, an incorrect bill. 

Despite being in the process of disputing our water bill, the city still sent my Church to tax sale. Sending churches and community members overly high, incorrect water bills is a common occurrence in our city. With so many mistakes, the city should not be able to send anyone’s home or church to tax sale over a water bill. Having our church sent to tax sale has consumed much of my time in the last year, despite the root cause of the issue being a billing mistake with the Department of Public Works.

I need to raise $10,500 in order to redeem the tax lien on my Church. Please consider donating to help us save our Church.