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.

 

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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!

 

Crunch Time!

Time is quickly running out for us to close a deal and move to a new property before our furlough in August!  On top of that, our rent is being raised 20%! Considering the devaluation of the peso, our church cannot pay rent and efficiently save for property too. Real estate prices are always in dollars (because of its stability). When the church first started saving, every peso given was worth 30 cents. Now every peso is worth 13 cents!

For all these reasons, as well as the fact that our building is maxed out, we must make a move very soon. Please pray for guidance in making an offer and that the property owners will accept our terms.

Renewing the Vision

A little over a year ago we formally presented the church’s vision to buy property in Pilar, asking for church folks to commit to give monthly toward the project. (See post here.) At that time, they had already given almost U.S. $5,000 and since then, have given more than another U.S. $9,000. Now, through the generous offerings from our supporters in the States as well, we are getting VERY close to making an offer on the property!

This past week, we had another banquet to renew our vision for and commitment toward the land fund.  Please pray for God to continue to bless the sacrifices of His people!

If you have questions about this project regarding the purchase process, financial statements or the future construction phase, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Church Planting Strategy

A few supporters have asked why we need to purchase property now, at this young stage of the church plant.  Here are the major reasons why, taken from https://ibamissions.wordpress.com/ministry/…

The Current Need – With a church established and growing, our next major goal is to purchase property and build a building.  The strategy in this is in order to:

• Give room for growth – We have outgrown our current facility and are going to two Sunday services.  Having an adequate building that gives plenty of room for growth will free up that time for other disciple-making opportunities.
• Establish a permanent presence in the community – In Argentina, many “evangelical” (the name given to any non-Catholic church) churches rent a facility and come and go quickly. However, owning property gives a sense of permanence in the community and security to its members.
• Be wise stewards of our resources –  Loans are not only difficult to obtain in Argentina, but their rates fluctuate and can run 30% or more.  Rent is increased 10% per year and is renegotiated after 3 years.  This makes it unaffordable and unfeasible to stay in a rented facility for more than 3 years.
• Prepare the groundwork to hand over the work to a national pastor – Once the church is alleviated of the burden of a rental contract, it frees up funds to pay a national pastor’s salary.  We want the church to be prepared as soon as possible.

Out of Our Comfort Zone

Church planters say when a building reaches 80% capacity, it’s considered full because visitors feel uncomfortable trying to find a seat and are hesitant to return. Our somewhat awkward facility seats 75 people and we currently average 66 in attendance. In that regard, our building has reached its comfort level! Two core families have agreed to switch to our second service beginning September 18. Pray that this effort will allow us to reach as well as accommodate more people on Sundays.