A Hubei church is in the process of decorating a newly purchased building for future gatherings, with the funding gap estimated to be 1.5 million yuan.
On August 31, 2020, Gospel Church in Huangmei Town, Huanggang City, Hubei Province, purchased the first church located in the county seat, with rooms for training, choir practice, and one-to-one counseling. With 414 seats, the church’s furnishing and decoration are expected to be completed before January.
Starting from 1996, more than a dozen people gathered inside a believer’s home, and now the number of Christians has grown to more than 300. Having moved between venues many times along the way, they rented an old house (two floors, 0.0136 acres) from the county supply and marketing agency for ten years, which was not big enough for gathering. For more than a decade, they had been praying for a new meeting place, and during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, this prayer was fulfilled.
Senior pastor Xiong of the church introduced that most of the developers refused to sell housing to them when they had known what they were for. One of the developers was willing to sell a blank house to them, as he understood and recognized the Christian faith.
At that time, the church administrative board and pastoral staff prayed together for a week. The director of the board asked God for three different signs to show whether this house was prepared by Him. When they met with the developer, all three aspects were confirmed. "So, the house is bought," said Xiong.
They had to make a lump-sum payment, as they could not meet the bank’s mortgage requirement for the house which has a construction area of nearly 1,100 square meters (0.27 acres). “Thank God. The estimated total cost is about 5 million yuan, and we have raised 3.3 million yuan to buy the house and 500,000 yuan for decoration."
The current total funding gap is estimated to be 1.5 million, with the arrears from the purchase of the church topping 1 million. They have now finished the foundation works of civil engineering and the water channel. Next, the decoration of floors, ceiling, and walls, and the installation of the equipment including an air conditioner, audio systems, and circuits will be completed in November.
"I hope churches everywhere can pray for us. Although we are backward here, believers are determined to dedicate the best to God. So we invite designers to design everything from building to audio and air conditioner, and a lot of effort has been devoted to every detail," added the pastor.
- Translated by Abigail Wu
