Faithful Stewards

Faithful stewards. That phrase best describes James and Joyce Sechrest. As furlough replacement missionaries, they were entrusted with our house, our dog, our church, but most importantly, the care of souls here in Pilar. For over five months they faithfully stewarded each one with great diligence and love. They left our house better than they found it, a very spoiled Yorkie (in a good way), and a footprint of godliness, kindness, and pastoral care in the hearts of people in this community and the Pilar church. Praise God for their example and ministry.

 

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Teaching leaders to teach

During the months prior to leaving Argentina for furlough, we trained several men and women to lead our Sunday morning Bible study hour. There are five men and six women leading a total of 70 adults in small groups. Praise the Lord for the willingness of these leaders to teach others.

God is really blessing the ministry of the Sechrests in Pilar! Our church people are responding well to their leadership, while the church leaders continue to lead well. This is another confirmation that our church is well on its way to becoming independent.

2019 Disciple-Makers Conference

THANK YOU so much for praying for and giving to the 2019 South American Disciple-Makers Conference! Approximately 27 pastors and 70 lay people received biblical instruction on God-centered relational evangelism using the Exchange materials. We thank the Lord for these tools to help us all fulfill the Great Commission and pray that God will give much fruit as a result of this conference.

Plans are already being made for next year’s Disciple-Makers Conference! Together with Arch Ministries, our goal is to see pastors from each of the 12 South American countries represented. If you know of a national pastor or missionary in one of these countries who would want to be a part of an interdependent network of like-minded churches, please send us their e-mail address so we can contact them.

Encouraging Like-Minded Pastors

Arch Ministries Pastors’ Fellowship

When we left the States late October, we thought we would not be back until our next furlough. However, the Lord graciously provided for us to attend the 2019 Arch Ministries Pastors’ Fellowship in Bradenton, Florida. It was an exceptional time of instruction from God’s Word, reconnecting with long-time friends, and forging new friendships. Although we were able to help out a little, it was nothing in comparison to all the blessings we received!

Encouraging Like-Minded Pastors and Churches

Just as our minds were instructed and our hearts were encouraged at the pastors’ fellowship in Florida, we desire to continue to encourage and equip other missionaries and national pastors in disciple-making in South America. This year, we will offer another pastors’ seminar, with a focus on personal evangelism. Pastor Jeff Musgrave will be here to teach the Exchange Bible study.

In order to make this conference accessible to national pastors all over Argentina, we are offering assistance with transportation, lodging, and meals. An individual has already given half of the $5,000 we need to raise for this need. If you would like to contribute toward this project, you may do so by mail or online by simply noting “Greenwood 2019 Conference.” Any additional funds given beyond the $5,000 needed for the 2019 conference will be designated toward the 2020 Disciple-Making Conference.

 

Stateside Ministry

It is often difficult to share the effectiveness of one’s ministry when your time with a supporting church or church where you are presenting for new support is very brief. We thank the Lord that our visits have been met with overwhelming encouragement and support for what the Lord is doing in and through His church in Pilar, Argentina. Many leaders and lay people alike expressed a desire that their local church would have a renewed focus on evangelism and discipleship. Our prayer is that this desire be accompanied by a work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of individuals as they begin to look beyond themselves to the opportunity to minister to “one another” in ways that will result in reaching our generation for Christ and His glory.

We were privileged to attend Baptist World Mission’s annual meeting at our sending church this year. About every six years, we have the opportunity to catch up with missionary friends and meet with members of the mission board to report on ministry progress. The reports from the missionaries were encouraging and the opportunity to see new missionaries appointed to the board filled our hearts with joy as we see fellow laborers prepare to enter the harvest fields of the world.

Church Anniversary

Just as a mother never tires of bragging on her child or reminiscing on her child’s formative years, so we never tire of doing the same with our now eight-year-old church plant. We marvel at how God has worked in, through and all around us since even before we moved to Pilar. What began as a Bible study in 2008, developed into a church in 2010, and is now a maturing body of believers. The Lord continues to work to grow His people in His Word to transform them (us!) into disciple-making disciples of Christ.

We came to Argentina with the goal of planting independent, self-supporting, self-reproducing national Baptist churches. Praise the Lord, we are getting closer and closer to this church plant becoming the first one!

 

Happy Resurrection Sunday from the Greenwood family!

You can see more pictures of our anniversary/Easter celebration here.

 

Disciple-Making Pastor’s Seminar

In March, James was privileged to travel to Monterrey, Mexico, to participate in a pastor’s seminar on disciple making. He was able to encourage other pastors in Latin America on how to implement a culture of disciple making in their churches. During the same trip, he traveled to Ohio to observe disciple making in action at a large, established church  (Grace Church of Mentor). Both of these destinations were profitable in helping us to grow as church-planting missionaries.

2017 Ministry Report

The Need

We began 2017 in the States, at the end of our six-month furlough. As soon as we returned to the field in February, we eagerly commenced teaching, by word and example, how to implement a culture of disciple-making in our church. We saw the need to do this because there was little evangelistic vision and urgency in our life and ministry, our members were not being properly equipped as godly disciple-makers and we lacked the skill to plan and grow ministries around disciple-making.

The Plan

For the first time in our Christian walk, we began to sift every aspect of our lives and ministry through the filter of the Great Commission. Our theme for 2017 was, “Each one win one. Each one lead one. Each one follow one. Each one take one.” This simple plan reiterates our church’s purpose statement in a way that every member is challenged to accomplish his part. God’s chosen method for both conversion and growth of the saints is not just the responsibility of the pastor or missionary, but of all God’s people as they are trained and equipped to prayerfully speak God’s Word to others. This is now the central priority of our ministry.

Creating a New Culture

After teaching and preaching these concepts to our leaders and then to our people, many were excited and ready to begin a mentoring relationship with a more mature believer and/or mentor a believer newer in the faith. The shift in mindset toward each one shepherding the soul of another is phenomenal!  By God’s grace, there are currently 23 men and 39 women actively being discipled one-on-one.

After “preparing the nursery,” or equipping each willing disciple to be a disciple-maker, we began to encourage each one to intentionally evangelize at least one unsaved contact. Several folks are befriending their coworkers and neighbors for the purpose of evangelism and a few have begun reading the Bible together!

Both attendance and offerings have increased substantially this year, which is an indication of the growth of the Word taking place in each heart, mind and life.

Resounding Example

As the believers in Pilar became examples (1 Thessalonians 1:7), other pastors wanted to know how they could implement a similar disciple-making culture in their own church. The Lord enabled us to offer a Disciple-Making Conference in September, and we continue to provide ongoing support and teaching to those pastors. Other missionaries and national pastors are gradually embracing this Bible-centered, disciple-making vision, and expressing their commitment in both their personal lives and ministries. Our prayer is that we may be able to help plant new churches and to revitalize and grow existing churches through these efforts.

Vision for 2018

To God be the glory for all that He has done in 2017! Much has been accomplished, yet there is still much to be done. Although our church is bigger than most independent Baptist churches in this country, it still only represents .04% of the population of Pilar. This city needs at least five more churches planted (one church for every 50,000 inhabitants), and Argentina even more (740 churches)!

We long to continue to see the fruit of the Great Commission in our personal life, home and ministry. We desire to see our church folks intentionally and lovingly reach their neighbors and coworkers with  urgency, for the purpose of making disciples and then teaching them to obey all that Christ has commanded.

This is our vision because we believe it is God’s vision.

Missions Trip

2017 Viaje Misionero – Santiago del Estero

Reaching beyond our Jerusalem and into our Judea and Samaria, 14 men from our church, along with a significant offering, went to Santiago del Estero, a province 12 hours away, to help with the construction for two church plants. God gave them safety, the Lord was glorified in every aspect of the project and worked in and through the men.

Last May, James was at a local pastors’ fellowship and met Pastor José Luis who told the other pastors at this meeting how he is ministering in an extremely poor area of the province of Santiago del Estero, how their building has a dirt floor with only three walls and some tin held down with blocks for a roof, but how his family loves this city and her people. After a strong wind storm, they have had to go gather the tin that blew away. However, James was so impressed with this man’s servant’s heart, that he assured him that our church in Pilar would come and help in some way. Unbeknownst to us, José Luis was dubious of this promise because Santiago del Estero hardly ever gets outside help and, according to its residents, “No one ever wants to come visit here!”

Shortly thereafter, the Lord gifted one of our church men with a large reticulated metal structure. A company paid him to tear down a virtually new building and they said he could do whatever he wanted with the materials! We all knew right away that the Lord wanted to give us this building so that our church could be a channel of blessing to Pastor José Luis!

The Lord provided free transportation to take the materials up to the church as well as over $5,000 for other supplies. In just four days, 15 men were able to install a new roof, backfill and pour the floor, pour a second-story floor, stucco the inside of the building, install lighting and build a second bathroom.  See more pictures here.

With some of the surplus materials from the demolished metal structure, we were able to help a second church plant (about 50 miles from the first church) get the initial structure going for their new building. An 82-year-old church member had prayed that God would allow her to live to see their church have a building on their property. Her pastor teased her that she might get to see Jesus before the end of this year!

Praise God that we were able to give back part of all that we have been given and that our people were able to get a glimpse of missions in other areas of the country.

Unexpected, God-intended consequences

God has done some pretty amazing things since we have begun to implement changes in order to create a disciple-making culture in our church! As believers realize the implications of being a true follower of Jesus Christ, they have begun to take their Christian walk seriously, to pray earnestly for and witness to their unsaved contacts, to practice love and good works and to mentor believers less mature in the faith. In the past seven months, 16 adults have trusted Christ as Savior and almost all of them are being discipled. Last week, L., the adult son of one of our church members, as well as R., the father of a church member, both trusted Christ!

Creation Conference

On July 19-21, our church hosted a Creation Conference with Missionary Jonathan Rehfeldt as an evangelistic outreach. This conference was originally planned to take place at a another church here in Buenos Aires, but the church had to cancel. We (James and Amy) were already scheduled to be a part of a conference in Brazil during that time, but our church leaders agreed to go ahead and host it. Just a few hours before it was to begin, there was no electricity in the church building! It’s winter here, so that meant no heat either. The business next-door had power, so they allowed us to run an extension cord so that we could at least have basic lights and run the audio and PowerPoint.

Our church people had to overcome several other major obstacles during the week, but at the end of it all, the Lord was glorified. There were about 40 visitors each of the three nights and one lady, M., got saved. Because of the event promotion, people who had been looking for a church found us and started attending.

As a side note, the power company fixed the problem ten days and four official complaints later! 

Disciple-Making Seminar

Please pray for the preparations for our first South American Disciple-Making Seminar this September 11-13 for missionaries and national pastors. Our church in Pilar is generously preparing the meals for this three-day conference. As of today, 95 missionaries, national pastors and their wives from 6 different provinces in Argentina, as well as the countries of Brazil, Peru, Uruguay, Chile, Mexico, United States and even Australia are registered to attend. Please pray for the Lord to work in the many, many details of this important event—transportation, meals, lodging, logistics, etc.

 Our prayer is that this conference will challenge each attendee to be a disciple maker and that we would be able to create a network of like-minded churches that can help one another start more churches.

Family Matters

In July, we were privileged to go to Curitiba, Brazil, for James to speak at a missionary training conference for Brazilian missionaries. It was such a blessing to observe how God is working in our neighboring Brazil and to be able to minister to fellow missionaries who are serving in the cities and jungles of Brazil, as well as Mozambique, Africa.  We also spent time learning from our hosts and veteran missionaries, Ed and Jan Alexander, about ministry in Brazil.

By His grace alone,

the Greenwoods

Missionary Training Conference

James was privileged to preach at a Brazilian missionary training conference last week. Praise the Lord for this amazing opportunity to minister to these missionaries serving in the city and jungles of Brasil as well as Mozambique Africa!

MBBF – Missão Batista Brasileira Fundamentalista

 

 

Gospel Growth

“And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied… greatly…”

(Acts 6:7)

Thank the Lord for not only the increase in church attendance, but even more so for the increase of the Word of God in believers, drawing them into mutually edifying fellowship with one another. How does that play out? Every day, all over the city of Pilar, believers from our church are meeting to study the Bible and exhort one another (Hebrews 3:13). Men, women and teens are getting together one-on-one and in small groups—mature believers leading less mature Christians, new Christians and/or unbelievers. That’s Gospel growth!

One of the Bible study groups consists of men at all different levels of spiritual growth. They are able to share problems and receive biblical counsel as well as pray with and for one another.

Gospel Growth through small group Bible studies

One of the beautiful things about creating a culture of disciple-making is that people are receiving the mentoring they need to grow spiritually, and those who are mentoring are growing through the challenge of being an example to others.

In March, Amy and Lauren began leading a Bible study in a Peruvian immigrant neighborhood, because two ladies were willing to host it but did not feel capable of leading it. Amy will tell you that she felt extremely inadequate to minister to these folks because of the cultural differences. The Lord used each of the ladies in their weakness! As a direct result of these Bible studies, Daisy and Belén have come to know Christ, and are now being mentored by mature believers (Rosa and Martha, the hosts of the Bible study)!

Amy, Belén (on the day of her new birth!), Rosa and Martha

Amy, Daisy (new believer), Rosa, Martha and Lauren

 

7 years old!

What started out as a small Bible study in 2008, grew into a church in 2010, and seven years later we marvel at how God continues to work in and through this body of believers to reach Pilar for Christ. Members are growing spiritually and going out and witnessing to their family, friends, neighbors and coworkers, and there are unsaved visitors every week at church. In the past month, three folks have trusted Christ and are now being discipled. Sunday morning attendance has been at an all-time high. Those numbers are a mere reflection of what the LORD is doing in this church.

Our theme for this year is, “Each one Reach one. Each one Lead one. Each one Follow one. Each one Take one.” The idea is that every believer is actively involved evangelizing, mentoring, being mentored and taking at least one Bible institute class per year. The response has been amazing! Men, women and teens are doing just that! One of the beautiful things about this is how God is taking broken people and using them for His honor and glory in ways none of us ever imagined.

One way we are equipping our people to disciple others is by going through the Foundations book all together in our Sunday morning discipleship hour.  In 12 weeks, the 60 people taking this class will be familiar with the material enough to be prepared to teach it to someone else. Please pray as we “prepare the nursery,” so to speak, to receive new converts. 

 

Home again!

Here is a breakdown of this past furlough in numbers: six months, 18 churches, 20,000 miles by car, 18,000 miles by air, 90 nights on the road and 300 Chick-fil-A nuggets (guesstimating on that one).

What we can’t put a value on, numerical or otherwise, is the much-needed spiritual and physical refreshment, precious friendships forged, significant opportunities to preach and teach and, maybe the most important, the biblical teaching we heard on disciple-making that will forever transform our ministry.

In Our Absence

We are encouraged to return to the ministry in Pilar and see the progress made in our absence—on the building and in the lives of the believers. The folks made significant progress on the downstairs bathrooms, the auditorium and the exterior parking area.

Benjamin, the deacon in charge the past six months, and Adriano, our missionary intern from Brazil, have been taking turns preaching. Also, three teens have been able to teach and preach a few times, and are chomping at the bit for more! One of our newest members, Cesar, has been helping to lead the music.  It hasn’t been perfect, but the Lord is obviously at work to get this church ready for us to transition out. Please pray for wisdom as we work toward that end over the next year.

 

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!

 

 

Disciple-Making

November has been another busy month of traveling, but an encouraging one! At our fifth and final missions conference in Huntsville, Alabama, we heard Pastor Tim Potter speak on becoming a disciple-making church. The two sessions that we heard him were so encouraging that we made plans to attend a full two-day ARCH Ministries conference on the subject. The Lord provided the time and finances for both of us to go, and it was a tremendous blessing. The emphasis on all the members of the church taking ownership of their biblical responsibility to make disciples is precisely the next step of the church planting process in Pilar. Praise the Lord for this biblical wisdom at just the perfect time! Pray for us as we begin to teach this and implement some changes in Pilar in 2017.

Our hearts are overflowing with joy at all the good reports from the folks back in Pilar! Men’s and ladies’ discipleship continues to go strong, five men just went on a construction missions trip to another province, the missionary intern is teach several music classes and there seems to be a good spirit among the people. To God be the glory!

Update from Lauren

“I had an amazing experience in the jungles of Peru, where I learned so much about clinical terms and procedures, medical missions, the power of prayer and, most importantly, about God and His redeeming love and power! On this trip I was given opportunities to work alongside different doctors and nurses who were so patient to teach me. This experience certainly confirmed my call to medical missions and has lit a fire in me to achieve that goal, in God’s strength. In May of next year I am praying to be able to return to Peru, this time to the Cuzco area, with Operation Renewed Hope and participate in another medical missions trip. I was definitely left with a great burden for Peru! I am now more excited than ever about going to Maranatha Baptist University in 2018 to begin my training in the field of nursing so that I may be fully equipped to reach people physically, in order to be able to then reach their more important spiritual need. Please pray that I would stay moldable to His perfect will.” — Lauren Greenwood

Missions Conference Mania

This month we were privileged to participate in missions conferences at Providence Baptist (Riverview, FL), Faith Baptist (Taylors, SC), Tucson Baptist (Tucson, AZ) and our home church, Hillsdale Baptist (Tampa, FL). Missions conferences are an exciting time to set aside our regular activities and focus on world-wide evangelism. As missionaries, we love to have that extra time with friends, old and new, to share what God is doing in and through us in Argentina.

As soon as we finished the conference in Tucson, we hopped on a plane and raced back to Tampa just in time to see off our daughter, Lauren, before she journeyed to Puerto Maldonado, Peru for a missions trip. The Lord miraculously opened doors for her to help translate for a Operation Renewed Hope medical missions team with Buddy and Loren Fitzgerald. Thank you to all those who gave  and are praying for her trip. Please keep praying for safety and for the Lord to work in and through her during her time in Peru. She will give you a report shortly after she returns.

Words cannot express our overflowing joy at the reports we are receiving from the church leaders in Pilar. Attendance is better than ever – they even hit a new record with 117 for a normal Sunday service. The men are sharing the preaching and teaching responsibilities and the church is responding with tender hearts. Our missionary intern has added a new perspective with guitar and piano classes and a renewed burden for the youth group. We are also proud of how they are biblically dealing with difficult counseling situations as they arise. Please pray for protection of God’s flock in Pilar in our absence.

We have one more missions conference in November, and then we are back to Sunday meetings and more time at our home church. We look forward to making visits, canvassing and leading Bible studies while we are back in Tampa.

 

Good News from a Far Country

We are receiving positive reports on the ministry in Pilar. Our Brazilian missionary intern, Adriano, is preaching, leading the music and teaching piano to some of the teens. Benjamin is preaching, teaching and taking care of the administrative duties, as well as working his full-time job. Pray for godly wisdom for the leadership team as they counsel two families who are going through some trials right now.

During the month of September, we will be reporting at Mikado Baptist (Macon, GA), College Park Baptist (Cary, NC), Valleyview Baptist (Northampton, PA) and Bible Baptist (Shickshinny, PA). Please pray for safety and good health while traveling.

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.

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!

Summer Camp

The Lord gave us a blessed time, as always, participating in summer camp in Uruguay. This is the third year we’ve gone to Archie Perez’s (fellow Baptist World Mission missionary) ministry’s youth camp.

#uruguay2016

Besides our family, seven campers and one adult from our church came with us. James directed the games this year, which was a nice break from the usual routine back home. Two teen boys surrendered to full-time ministry while at camp! (See more photos here.)

Baptist World Mission missionaries represented (from L to R)- Jonathan & Micki Rehfeldt (Colonia, UY), Archie & Ruth Perez (Colonia, UY), James & Amy Greenwood (Buenos Aires, AR) and Paul & Johanna Harmon (Durazno, UY) (plus MKs scattered throughout!)

Help Wanted

You may notice from the missionary picture above that there is a dearth of BWM missionaries in Buenos Aires. As a matter of fact, we are the only ones. Yes, it does get lonely! Even more importantly, as we look toward the future, we realize we need help! Over the next two years, our plan is to hand over the Pilar church to a national pastor and plant another church. However, there are no Argentines to help us like there were back when we began the Pilar church with two Christian families. Would you specifically pray that God would send us at least one mature Christian Argentine family and one missionary family?

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.