Last week we stopped renting a two-bedroom home, affectionately known as “la casa de David,” a house on a strategic corner where the church plant initially began to meet. After a little over a year it became quite apparently that we needed more space, so we began renting a second floor meeting place for our Sunday services, but continued to use the house for weekly Bible studies, prayer times, intern housing, storage for the sound system and a great place to sell food to raise support for our property project.
David Gómez also lived at the house for several years before moving to Uruguay, sent out as a FAMEX missionary. Co-worker Jim Cottrill wrote a blog entry about this, complete with pictures, click HERE to read more.
It’s great to look back and see God’s hand. Our initial band of brothers consisted of 19 people who were sent out from the Sendero de Vida Santa Bárbara church with the purpose of beginning a new church plant in a neighborhood of 3400 houses in the same municipality of Ixtapaluca.
Between the two churches, 75 people have been baptized in the last three years. The first church, with Pastor Martín Méndez, has continued to grow, and has remodeled what was initially a small, two-bedroom house into a three story structure with space for 150-200 people. The second church, in the neighborhood of Jesús María, recently purchased a plot of land adjacent to their community.
It’s been great to see how the church has taken ownership of this whole process since day 1. Initial construction has begun, and additional permits and paperwork are in process.
This past Saturday several of us from the church worked on cleaning up the street side of the property, removing brush and shoveling dirt. Afterwards…a “taco placero” which is basically a tortilla with fried (crispy) pork rind and avocado. And Coke, of course! I must be getting old…my back was killing me after shoveling dirt with son David for a while!
Below…a short video of the group thanking Woodside Bible of Troy and White Lake for their contribution to the property purchase here.
