2016 Year in Review

Deadline

2016 began in a pressure cooker! Working long hours in the scorching South American summer heat, we were pressured to get the new church building ready in time for the April 1 deadline. God continued to provide the health, strength, labor and funds necessary to make that goal in just 13 months, with only volunteers laboring Saturdays, holidays and days off! To God be the glory! See pictures here.

Dedication

The men in our church who work in the construction trade observed that our volunteer crew would accomplish more on a given Saturday than most eight-man crews on a job site get done in a five-day work week!

Before the building could be dedicated on April 1, we saw the dedication of many Argentine church folks and Stateside supporters with the donation of their time, labor and offerings. Thank you, once again, to all those who gave toward this project.  See pictures here.

Departure

One of the men dedicated to the completion of the project also proved to be dedicated to the Lord for ministry. We were able to leave Benjamin in charge of the church plant, along with the other two deacons and a missionary intern, while we began a six-month furlough. We departed Argentina on August 4 and look forward to returning January 31 of next year. We have visited 17 churches so far, including five missions conferences. See our furlough video here.

Disciple-Making

With a renewed burden for biblical disciple making, we head back to the field eager for the next phase of ministry. During this next term, we will go through the process of handing over this church to national leadership while preparing a detailed plan for the next church plant, which should include a Christian preschool. Please pray for wisdom!

 

 

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Breaking down and building up

A time to break down, and a time to build up

Sixteen teens and six sponsors from Faith Baptist (Taylors, SC) left a remarkable and lasting impression during their ten days in Buenos Aires. They stayed busy tirelessly helping with our teen leadership retreat, passing out over 7,000 tracts and VBS flyers, working our winter VBS and demolishing most of what was left of the old building. While they did some tearing down, they also built up our community, church body and us personally. We thank the Lord for their very encouraging visit. Please come back anytime!

Winter VBS

Despite the rain and cold at the beginning of the week, the Lord brought more and more kids each day of VBS. One of our ladies brought up to 30 kids all by herself on the city bus! (Praise the Lord, the bus driver only charged her for two fares each time!) Six children made professions of faith during the week. The ladies also had a craft table to encourage the mothers to stay. One of those ladies trusted Christ on Sunday morning!

Going out with a splash

On the last Sunday of this term, we had the incredible blessing of baptizing 11 new believers and adding 11 new members to the church body! It was a glimpse of what our heavenly reward will be like as we  heard each one’s testimony, how they were saved and discipled through the faithfulness of our church folks.

But continue thou…

We thank the Lord for the capable leadership God has blessed us with three deacons, as well as missionary intern, Adriano dos Santos Silva, to preach and serve in our absence. Please pray for the spiritual protection of the leadership team and the flock in their charge during our time away.

A virtual tour

Project Update

Would you like to take a virtual tour of the new church building to see how God has provided for this project? Here is a video so you can do just that! This video also explains the projects that are still left to accomplish before our furlough beginning August 4.

This past week, we presented the following list before our church to ask for folks to sponsor projects. Their commitments and/or donations are reflected in the “Amount Given” column below. At an exchange rate of $14 pesos to US $1, that is a substantial amount!

If the Lord is leading you or your church to sponsor one of these projects, you may send a check to Baptist World Mission marked “Greenwood Church Land Fund.”

Rejoicing

In the short six-year history of the Pilar church, we have had the heartbreaking experience of having to discipline several members at different times for various reasons. Our desire is that those people would repent and seek restoration, but that rarely happens. This past year we asked you to pray for a former deacon who was one of those disciplined. With much tears and rejoicing, he has repented and returned to his family and the church. Praise God! Pray for him and his family as they seek to regain trust and establish new habits in the home.

Furlough 2016

Praise the Lord that He has provided housing near our sending church during furlough! We are also working with a ministry to purchase a mini-van. We will arrive in the States on August 5, yet there is so much to do before then— building projects, a teen missions team from Faith Baptist in Taylors, South Carolina, packing up our house to make room for Brazilian missionaries who will be staying here and all the other details you can imagine if you were to leave the country for six months. Please pray for the Lord to help us accomplish these things and for His continued provision while we are in the States.

Perspective

It all started in 2012 in an awkward storefront, with a vision and a goal of saving for an ample piece of property in a central location. Two years later, the land was purchased and two years after that, the church has a new building with room for growth. God does indeed pay for what He orders! We thank God for His provision and protection, as well as His strength to sustain us during the past four years of this process.

Building Inauguration Sunday

See photos of the event here.

See a six-minute video here.

[youtube http://youtu.be/xq8uWZBv5VE]

Thank You

Many of you played an important part in this process, whether it was praying, giving and/or coming down with a work team. Thank you for being an instrument for His glory. Just a few weeks before the inauguration, one more work team came down to help install the dry wall. Six adults from Calvary Baptist Church (Winter Garden, Florida), as well as James’ brother from South Carolina, gave the project that final push toward completion so we could be ready for the big day.

 

What a difference a year makes

One year ago this month, the church building plans were approved and we began construction. (See photos here.) In that time period, God has provided the funds and volunteer labor to get to this point. He has sent offerings from churches and individuals in the States, as well as from our church family here in Pilar. Three mission teams have joyfully donated their time and labor, with a fourth team arriving next week. Our church people have sacrificially given almost every Saturday and holiday over the past year in order to dig holes, pour concrete, lay block, cook lunch for the workers, clean up construction  debris and whatever else needs to be done. For all these things, we give all the honor and praise to our great God!

Reaching Toward the Finish Line

Not meaning to sound trite, but so much has happened since our last prayer letter. That explains why we haven’t sent more updates – because of a demanding and exhausting schedule! (We will try to do better in the future!) Since January, the Lord has provided the funds, labor and health to install the sheet metal on the roof, move the auditorium upstairs, demolish the old building downstairs, install the sub-floor and begin laying the mosaic tile.

God continues to amaze us with how He is working and protecting us even in the smallest details. For example, the weekend that we moved upstairs, scaffolding fell on top of two of our men, someone tried to break into the cars in the parking lot and a tree branch broke, falling on our power lines and landing in the parking area. In all of those things, the Lord protected our people and property.

Please pray that God would continue to mightily work through the following:

• March 11-16 – Mission team from Calvary Baptist in Winter Garden, Florida here to install drywall
• April 1-3 – Special Inauguration services, with our home pastor, Travis Smith, preaching

Demo Day!

A.ma.zing! An awesome work crew showed up and let out all their frustrations with sledge hammers on the old building’s concrete walls! In two days they got all the walls down and a large section of sub-floor leveled and poured. God is good!

Recycling at its best – We used the material from the walls we demolished as filler for the sub-floor

Teamwork

Getting started on the subfloor

First Sunday Upstairs

Our goal was to move upstairs to the finished (or at least usable) part of the new building by the first Sunday in February. Praise the Lord He enabled us to do just that! This is the first Sunday in the history of the church in an auditorium without an awkward layout or obstructions. Praising God for His faithfulness, provision and protection.

 

What God Orders, He Provides

In our last update, we asked prayer for God to provide the $10,000 needed for the roof. In the month of December, about half of those funds trickled in. Then, just this week, one of our supporting churches pledged the remaining amount. Praise the Lord!

As of today, the upstairs floor is poured, upstairs walls are almost finished and the steel structure for the roof is up. We will stay busy on other projects while waiting for bids for the sheet metal. The goal is to move the church upstairs by the end of January. Lord willing, in February we will demolish the old building and prepare the downstairs floor. In March, we are anticipating two possible work teams to help with sheet rock work. Please pray that the Lord works out those details.

A Gift with Eternal Rewards

Credit cards may offer you cash back or reward points on all your purchases, but God has an even better offer – fruit that abounds to your heavenly account (Phil. 4:17)!

Thank you for the generous gifts toward the building fund many of you have already given this year! 100% of those funds have been spent on building supplies. By God’s grace, all the labor has been given voluntarily either from work teams from supporting churches or from our church people themselves.

Typical Saturday lunchtime with volunteer work force

 

As of today, we are almost ready to pour the floor for the second floor and then it will be ready for the metal roof. We need to go ahead and purchase all the materials for the roof this month so that it will be ready to install in January. That will cost about $10,000 to complete.  Would you pray about giving toward this need this Christmas, whether as an individual, family, Sunday School class or church?

Gifts can be sent to our mission board at:

Baptist World Mission

PO Box 2149

Decatur, Alabama  35602

 Or you can send your gift directly to our PayPal account here: paypal.me/GreenwoodFamily.

 

Thank you for prayerfully considering giving toward this need to help the project move forward!

 

Project: Building Together – November update

The men of the church met last week to discuss the feasibility of finishing the building by our April inauguration date. We believe it is possible, but we need your prayers for God’s provision of labor and funds. We need block masons to help raise the walls on the second floor and those who have experience with drywall to install the partitions for the classrooms. Would you pray about these needs?

We have the windows, doors, stairs and the sub-floor already paid for! Praise God! By mid-December, we need to purchase all the materials for the metal roof on the second floor. That will cost about $10,000 to complete.

Looking Ahead

• November – 2nd floor block walls & columns
• December – pour slabs on 1st & 2nd floors
• January – install metal roof
• February – drywall installation
• March – tile & paint
• April 2016 – inaugurate new building!

Project: Building Together update

We thank the Lord for how He continues to provide for the building project so we can move forward. Below are the next projects we hope to complete as God provides:

Exterior Sign	$ 500
Stairs to second floor	$2000
First floor subfloor	$2500
Ceiling Materials for 1st Floor	$1750
Bathroom Tile	$1800
1st Floor Lighting	$3000
Bathroom Partitions	$ 900
Stairs to second floor	$2000
Exterior front doors	$2500

Project: Building Together

On December 17, 2014 we submitted the church building plans to the municipality for approval. On March 13, 2015, they were returned—approved!

We immediately commenced construction, digging ten six-foot holes for the pillars. As always, the church people have enthusiastically joined in on Saturdays, holidays and in the evenings after work.

[vimeo https://vimeo.com/jgreenwood/buildingtogether]

In the midst of the busyness of construction chaos, the Lord blessed our special anniversary weekend with several visitors in each of the three services and one salvation decision!