Grace Baptist Church of Malden, Missouri is seeing the "works of the Lord, and His wonders," (Psalm 107) as they pursue a permanent home!
Grace Baptist Church recently hit their first year anniversary! It was an exciting day with preaching, singing, food, and fellowship! But within a week of the celebration, they received a letter from the owner of the building stating that the rent was going to increase dramatically at the end of July. Not one to worry (actually, he wasn't surprised as most church plants move at least 3x before finding a permanent home), Bro. Childers began to scour the community for a suitable meeting place. And....nothing. Few buildings were open for rent and those that were available, weren't in very good shape. Several buildings were for sale, but their asking prices were far above what the fledging church could afford.
It's amazing to watch faith in action! A powerful Lord is responding to the faith of His people, and the result is a community being exposed to the Light of Jesus!
What do you do? Well, you turn to the Lord, that's what you do! Bro. Steve contacted numerous churches and we began to pray. He continued to search without much success. And then, a door opened! He found a building that had been vacant for about a year, and discovered that the owners were about to put the building up for sale soon! Time for more prayer! Contact was made and a day was appointed to check it out. What would it be like? Would it be sufficient for a place to meet? So many questions!
God provides everything we need!
God called Steve and Traci to start a Gospel preaching church in the town of Malden. The community had lots of churches, though few were telling people about the life-changing power of Jesus Christ and the salvation He offers! When the rent increase came in the mail, and no adequate buildings were found, it seemed as though God was closing the door on Malden! Yet, the Childers pushed ahead by faith, trusting God to provide for their needs.
Bro. Steve gathered a crew to go investigate the building. What they found was exactly what they needed! The building is structurally sound, can easily be adapted to the needs of a church, and it has plenty of potential for expansion as the need arises! It has rooms for Sunday School classes as well as a nursery. It has a kitchen. There is plenty of space for a sanctuary and overflow. There is lots of parking space, an adjoining lot, and importantly, the new Grace Baptist Church is on a main highway for easy access and visibility! The Lord is bringing people together to work on clean-up and remodeling. Churches are giving extra to make it happen. It's fun to watch the blessings flow! A couple's faith in a powerful God is bringing the glorious Gospel to Malden!
It's exciting to see what God has in store next! Stay tuned...the best is yet to come!
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