Dear Praying and Supporting Friends,
We are reaching out to you with some very exciting news. For about a year now we have begun looking for a new building to purchase to become our permanent church home. We have only rented and have already had to move our church once. Every time we have to change locations the church suffers. Recently we were looking at a building only 10 minutes walk from our current rental. This building is 6,600 square feet. It has three floors, 11 bathrooms including one that is easily converted to handicap accessible- a law here in Brazil for churches, plenty of parking, and three spaces all ready to go for Sunday school with no work needed other than paint.
We have looked at other buildings with the same square footage or less and they are all around R$1.4 – 1.8 million reals or $350,000. This building is going for R$800,00 or $160,000. It is currently a metal shop.
In this new building we could go from an auditorium that will seat 50 people max to one that will seat 150 people. We would also be able to split up our Sunday school class. Currently we only have room for two classes, nursery through Jr. High and then a combined high school through adult class.
We would also be able to have a permanent recording room set up for our radio station, as well as for helping our Brazilian missionaries record their video presentations for deputation. We could expand our ladies meeting, which has had salvations every year, to include more churches with the extra space. The homeschool ministry could open up to more families as well. There are so many great aspects about this move.
Our church people are very excited. People have been saving cans, gathering cardboard and some of the ladies are planning on selling baked goods to help raise the money. We have managed to save up $10,000 but we need help getting the rest. The average salary of our members is around $1,000 a month.
We are doing all we can on our end to raise the money but we need your help. We are asking for you to prayerfully consider giving a one time gift toward this purchase. The building is $25 a square foot or $260 a square meter, an amount easily attainable by Sunday school classes and individuals.
We firmly believe God is going to provide and we would love for you to be a part of this. You can send the funds to BIMI or you can donate here.
In His Service,
Bryan and Rebekah Johnson
São Caetano do Sul, Brazil
