Greetings from wintry Providence! God has been at work here over the last few months, bringing things together for His church here.
When we started the church last July, we did so by faith. Pastor Chapman and we agreed that even though the finances didn’t make sense, it was God’s timing and He would provide. Shortly after the last issue came out, we received a call out of the blue from a friend of an acquaintance who wanted to make a large donation to the church plant. He ended up donating $90,000 to buy a bus for the church, pay the first year’s rent on a building for the church and purchase seating for it, and to pay the first year’s rent on a house for us! Praise God! We still have much more going out than coming in and could use prayers for long-term financial growth and support, but by God’s grace our needs are more than met right now. We have also had one family join us over the last few months. Patrick and Gabby had been saved for years but were not regularly attending church before. They started coming shortly after the last issue, and a few weeks ago the husband and wife were baptized and joined the church!
As of the last update, we were meeting at a local park because we were having trouble finding a location that would be workable as a church meeting place and was willing to rent to us. As of November, God opened the door to at least a temporary meeting place. A Spanish theater company rents out a portion of their building for events and has been renting it to us on Sundays since then.
We also have the prospect of a better and more permanent location. Back in November, the Catholic Church in Providence combined two of their shrinking parishes and closed one of them. We have been reaching out to the local diocese office to see about renting that building from them. It is in a great location, and since it is already a church building, we would not have to go through the expensive and time- consuming process of obtaining a change-of-use permit from Providence. I have spoken to one man in the office who seems willing to consider renting to us, but he says they need until the middle of March to decide what they are doing with the building.
Please pray that God will open the door for us to make use of this much better location. God also blessed us with an upgrade to our transportation. Just as we were coming to the conclusion that our 22-year-old Suburban had a life expectancy measured in weeks, some friends from the ministry in Alabama sent us a 2013 Honda Odyssey. We thank God for this wonderful provision! The most recent progress has been in our housing. Just as we struggled to find a building suitable for use as a church that would rent to a church, we also struggled to find a house suitable for our family that would rent to a pastor whose source of income was only a few months old. By God’s grace, however, we finally connected with a man whose uncle had been a preacher and who was renting out a three-bedroom house in an area where we can live. God moved him to allow us to rent it from him. We are still unpacking, but we are excited to finally be in a house and are looking forward to being able to put much more of our time and effort into the work in Providence than was possible while dealing with the issues that accompany temporary housing and the search for a permanent home.