Happy 2023 to all! Our year has started full of surprises and twists and turns. You may remember that we have been fervently praying and diligently working on acquiring property to purchase for our church plant’s urgent need. After receiving many generous gifts and identifying two possible properties, both owners randomly increased asking price making further conversations unwise stewardship.
Taking a few weeks to pray and reevaluate, we were waiting for the holidays to pass before starting to search again. Then, the owner of the warehouse we are renting came to church leadership with unreasonable requests for the coming year and asked for a response within 24 hours. Tim with our Brazilian pastor responded by requesting until the end of March for us to return the rented warehouse back to the owner leaving us with nowhere to meet after March and increasing the intensity of our property search.
Without carrying on about so many answers to prayer, God provided us with another property to consider. The deacons and leadership responded very positively, and we had enough on hand to purchase the land but not to construct a building. Another miracle….two days before we needed to make a decision, word came in about another donation that will be enough to construct an open air metal structure to meet under and retrofit an old building on the property to use for classrooms and an office.
Our treasurer met with the realtor and a verbal purchase agreement was made just this morning. To God be the glory, great things HE has done. We are overwhelmed and working to ensure that the documents and payment steps proceed smoothly. Thank you for so many prayers and gifts and words of encouragement along the way.
December 2022
Amid all this, our church had several Christmas events including our first musical cantata presentation. We ran out of chairs for the cantata on Christmas Day and had many unbelievers in attendance. The church family was also together on New Year’s Eve and welcomed the new year with a time of prayer and praise. With designated gifts, we were able to provide special activities and gifts for the kids at the orphanage over Christmas as well.
Next week, Tim is the speaker for a week of youth camp, and Levi will attend. Following that, he preaches on church planting for a week of special evening meetings with seminary students and pastors, and then he begins the new semester teaching his seminary class as well. With all this and the church property purchase including construction and a move, this semester is going to be very busy. God has filled it with amazing opportunities to serve and be used.
Another gracious gift from the Lord is the continued healing of Andrea’s ankle fracture without needing surgery. She has started physical therapy this week and eager to get back to regular activity.
Praise God with us for providing a piece of land for our church plant and please pray that the rest of the purchase process goes smoothly. Also, pray for the move during our rainy season and that some type of open air metal roof structure can be built quickly to use by the end of March. We are eager to post pictures and video of our “gift from God”.
Praising God. Your partners, Tim and Andrea Blazer
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