Update on the Carcelen Church

Dear faithful brothers and sisters in Christ,

It is with awe and thanksgiving in my heart that I give you an update concerning what our Lord is doing through the Carcelen Church School project.  As you may remember our project was really overwhelming as we needed to raise close to $40,000 in six months.  This was after supporting the school with $13,000 over the past year.  Beyond this we are praying to be able to pay off a $7,000 loan that we took out during the school year.  

We were able to pay off over half of our debt after three months through a variety of events and through your generous support.  Our second payment of $14,000 is due at the end of December.  I am happy to report that we have almost raised this amount, still lacking only $5,000.  In the past few months many of you have given.  This total is $3,800.  This past Saturday we held our second garage sale.  Items donated included a lot of clothes from several Work and Witness teams and items sacrificially donated from our church family.  These items included a family stove and an expensive Sony video camera.  We rejoice to report that we raised $841.

One of the most encouraging things in my time in ministry has been seeing the response of the Carcelen Church.  As the new pastor of this church, I said all the right things to encourage them that God was bigger than any problem.  I said things like, “We will be faithful and do our part and God will provide the rest.”  I believed these things when I said them.  I believe them more now.  While we have worked hard to raise money to pay off our debt, we have also continued to give to others raising a significant offering for World Missions, helping several families experiencing financial problems, and paying our district obligations of 5% of our offerings.  

We lost of few families in the beginning of this process, but the overwhelming majority have followed our leadership and have worked, given, and prayed week after week for a year and a half with, I confess, more faith than I possessed.  During the past year our church has grown and we now have people attending from nine different countries.  Over and over I have heard people’s encouraging words, “Pastor, don’t worry.  God will provide.  We know he will,” and “God will turn this crisis into a great victory.” 

With this in mind, we are looking forward to the first Sunday in January.  We are planning a huge celebration to acknowledge that God is bigger than any problem.  We are going to sing, eat and hear testimonies.  But more than anything, we are going to mark this day in our memories so that when we face problems in the future, we will not panic or complain or run away, but we will know with all confidence that God is faithful and that we can trust in him, no matter how big the problem.  

I want to thank you again for your prayers and help with this great act of God.  Is it not overwhelming to be part of this?  Please keep us in your prayers as we are near the end of our last payment.  If you’d like to help us, you can do so by clicking on the following:  http://web.nazarene.org/goto/stanhall <http://web.nazarene.org/goto/stanhall>.  I’ll continue to keep you informed of all that the Lord is doing.  Next time I’ll send a photo of our great feast.

Blessings,
Stan