Some of you may know that our church the Free Evangelical Church of Kagran is looking for a place to relocate. For the past year they have been talking with an owner for purchasing a building. We have send information through our sail mal Newsletter last year.
In the past month there has been a lot of movement and steps taken…but not in the direction we were thinking. A few things happened within a short span of time. Pooling our resources we realized that we would need to pay less than the seller was asking for. We tried to negotiate to a lower price but the seller is not in a hurry to sell and thinks he can get what he is asking. So after a year of talking the church building committee decided not to pursue this any further.
Within 2 days the church was informed that there was an empty store, named Pagro, available at a highly populated and trafficked intersection. Purchasing out right was out of our range but a Christian business man, who had been helping us with the previous building, thinks this is a good investment for the Kingdom and is willing to buy the building and land and work out a good rental agreement with us. For this to work there are a few factors that need to be in place.
- He is not able to come up with all of the money up front so the church is loaning money for the purchase to be made by min month.
- We are looking for 2 other partners to rent the building as well. We have found one already, a woman in our church is starting a private kindergarten, this was in our original concept as we want to be a positive influence and witness in the community. The third partner, right now, seems to be an English speaking church that is also looking for a new location.
- All this needs to take place now because for the kindergarten option to work they need to start renovations in May so it can open in the Fall in order to make money.
The last two Sundays at church there has been a spark in the people, an excitement that I haven’t seen in a while. It seems that the whole church is getting behind this and ready to see what the Lord will do.
During this whole building search I can’t see the future nor know how God will work in this situation. I keep thinking of Jonathan or Schadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the Old Testament when each were faced with an unpredictable and seemingly impossible situation, Jonathan and his servant when the two of them attacked a philistine garrison killing 20 men by themselves. Jonathan said “It may be that the Lord will work for us” (I Sam. 14). Also, the 3 Hebrews that were faced with the fiery furnace when faced with recanting their faith and bowing to the king’s image or facing certain death. They answered,”…our God is able to deliver us…..but if not,…we will not serve your gods nor worship the golden image.” (Daniel 3).
In both circumstances they did not know what the Lord was going to do but went onward if even in apprehension because they were doing what they believed to be God honoring and the right thing to do.
We will keep you updated on this project as it unfolds.
Eric
