“How is a mission church different from other churches?”
“Why do missionaries still need support once the church building phase has been completed?”
These questions have made Christy and me aware that there may be others who do not fully understand that there are many stages of following the Lord’s leadership in building a missionary church. Therefore, we would like to take the opportunity to share with you where we are in this process of walking by faith and trusting God for our personal support as well as the building fund for Beacon Church. These two accounts are completely separate from each other.
Although we have completed the building phase, we, as a church, had to take out a mortgage to accomplish this. It was not possible to get a mortgage with the low rates that are available to homeowners through conventional banks. However, we praise the Lord that through Church Extension Loan Fund, we were able to get a loan of $787,000.00, with an interest rate of 7.5% percent.
Because so many of you volunteered and donated money, and because so many of our church members sacrificed their spare time and days off, what should have cost $1,560,000.00 to build only cost $787,000.00. We can only praise our great God for this providence!
We serve a God Who not only knows, but can and daily does meet needs. For example, Christy and I are now refinancing our home mortgage with a substantial monthly savings. What a blessing from God! We, like each of you, have normal living expenses and are also planning for the future college needs of our children and our retirement years.
Church growth is steady but extremely slow. Christy and I are willing to stay and work, but we need continued support. Our small but growing congregation cannot yet support the mortgage payment, utilities, and outreach ministries plus a pastor’s salary. Without the support of individual Free Will Baptists and Free Will Baptist Churches, this ministry will not be able to become self-supporting. As a church, we are trusting God to help us meet these needs by:
-the prayers of His people
-continuing to build attendance as more people hear and respond to God’s offer of salvation
-the gifts of people who are informed and willing to continue to give sacrificially to see this work accomplished
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank each of you for the sacrificial giving that has made this walk of faith possible, and we know that our LORD will reward each of you richly. It is a blessing for us to be your representatives here in RI. We have done our best to be faithful stewards, and we thank you for giving us this opportunity to be used of God to reach people here in RI.
To give to the Beacon Church Building Fund, you can send your donation to the Home Missions address at the bottom of page 1 marked Beacon Building Fund. To continue to support our salary account, simply mark your gift “Bill Reynolds” and send to the Home Missions address at the bottom of page 1. For your convenience, we also have a PayPal option if you click the “Donate” tab on the Home Page.
Pictured are our seven baptisms from September, plus pictures of our Ladies’ Luncheon, and a church service. There are many more pictures of other events you can see by clicking on “Events” and “Event Book.” Thanks for praying!!!
