Now that the Brooklyn Park Church of the United Brethren in Christ's Maranda Callendar UB Lighthouse Youth After School Center is up and running, the Rev. John Christophel, the church's pastor, needs those who promised money to finish the project to pay up.

Specifically, the church is $4,500 in the hole, he said. The church bought materials to build the center and its furnishings on a line of credit, and the creditors raised the interest rate from 6.9 percent to 29.9 percent in a week, Christophel said.

"We had to get the place ready for the kids," he said of the decision to buy on credit.

So far, the...