Building a Church

El Monte de Olivos Asamblea de Dios (Mt. Olives Assembly of God) church sits in the village of Sarabia, a village about five miles from our own village. The pastor there, brother Fernando, is a charasmatic evangelist who has a great heart for winning the lost to the Lord. He does not, however, feel gifted with a calling to be a shepherd of the flock. However, as is the case of many small rural churches, he has taken on the responsibility because there is no one else to pastor the church. In the weeks before the hurricane, Joshua had begun forming a relationship with brother Fernando.

The church in which the 20-person congregation meets is a box framed with wood pallets and outlayed with ¼” three-ply. When the hurricane slammed through southern Sonora, Fernando’s church was completely stripped down to the frame.

The call for help to the United States provided enough to help two situations. We gave half of the money to help a brother put a roof over his house. The rest of the money sat in our account as we prayed to the Lord where we should use it. We wanted the money to be used for the Glory of God, no matter to whom it was given.

Finally, a sister from the Assembly of God church shared with us the congregation’s plight. “At night it is so cold because the wind rips through the church, so I am taking extra blankets for the older women and men who cannot deal with the cold nights very well.” Joshua knew immediately from the Lord that the money would be used to bless the church.

Joshua met with brother Fernando and worked out a price. Our ministry could finance a third of the wood sheets needed to repair the church, if the church could muster up the other 2/3 of the cost. Joshua would provide all the labor, free of charge. The agreement was made, and we went to the city and purchased the necessary materials, including screws and caulk.

Over the next two weeks, Joshua worked diligently on the church. Through the blessing of his church building, the already growing relationship between Joshua and pastor Fernando exploded into a friendship . Fernando asked Joshua to begin teaching the services at the church. The first night that Joshua preached, the whole congregation stood when he took the pulpit, waiting for him to read the one or two scriptures before the lesson. Joshua chuckled. “You can sit down, I teach a little different, and reading through this passage of the Bible is going to take a while.” Surprisingly, some people stayed standing for the entire hour! By the second Sunday, they were all sitting, Bibles open, some with pens and paper in their hands, eager to hear more of the Word of God.

Fernando asked Joshua to meet with him on weekdays and they studied the word together. Fernando is very interested in this verse-by-verse teaching method that Joshua has presented to his congregation. He said, “It just seems so easy!” Of course, his first attempts to mimick Joshua were really awkward: He taught about one subject and read unrelated Psalms every five minutes to break up the teaching. But as he started studying with Joshua over a more methodical way of studying the Bible inductively, his services are really starting to reflect a focus on the Word of God rather than the word of man.

We are excited to do fix-up projects. We are a relational ministry, but sometimes relationships are formed first in a simple act of giving. Forming relationships with Fernando’s church has been refreshing for us. Fixing his church was a blessing that has affect both them and us.