Transformed from pub to parish

• Published date: 13 January 2022
• Publication title: Southland Express

‘‘The problem was the guy wanted half a million for it and I only had $600 and absolutely no hope of getting half a million dollars. But I heard God say to me ‘this is your building’.’’

It was not the first time Pastor Steel had walked this pioneering road, as he and his late wife Jo had established a church in Invercargill’s former Embassy Theatre building. He then started a church with his second wife in Twizel and established multiple missionary ventures in the Philippines.

Pastor Steel said he had been told by a prophet that God would supply him the money to buy an Invercargill building.

By February 2021, he was in Invercargill and unsuccessfully searching for a property.

A chance meeting with a friend revealed the Appleby Tavern was available.

‘‘We walked around the building and it was an absolute mess.’’

But he knew beyond doubt he had found the right building.

A phone call to Todd Real Estate salesperson Dave Penny ended in a conditional four-week contract being signed.

The ILT sold the Appleby Tavern to a private owner in 2016. Covered in tagging and expelling the stench from its...