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posted Jul 28, 2017, 3:39 PM by Doug Bickers
Greetings
to you in the blessed name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Please, we request your financial assistance in helping us to have an edifice
for Central Church of Christ to meet for worship of our great God. And to be
able to carry on with other kingdom assignments charged a local congregation to
do.
Where
we are currently using is a rented hall that has been of service to us in the
Lord's work since February 11 2000; on a Friday. This place does not afford us
the opportunity to fully do the Lord's work for kingdom expansion due to the
following reasons:
- the location is very obscure to the public and causes a great difficulty for
the public to recognize our presence. The hall is located in the middle of the
house. It used to be a warehouse.
-
the location is in the heart of business activities consisting of shop
owners, hawkers and street sellers. It is so congested that our congregation
sign post barely has a place or is noticeable.
-
the hall we use share one toilet with a few residents in the property, street
sellers within the neighbourhood, and shop keepers attached to the property. It
is as serving as a public toilet. Every attempt we have done to keep it descent
for use has always failed. You can see the condition of it in the attached
picture.
- the toilet is not in a hygienic state especially for our women brethren and
children because it is always in a messed state, and for fear of infection.
-
some members will have to hold tight not to use it when they are pressed
until service is over. They rush home. Some do not attend service at all in the
event of stomach upset, for fear of not having toilet to use if at church.
- it is obvious to us that many visitors and prospects never turn up again
because of the condition of the place.
- you cannot avoid walking through a pool of muddy water in the rains to
worship due to poor drainage, the water gathers and gradually absorbed in the
earth.
- the noise around from sellers is another challenge we are faced with.
NOTE: In our current location, we have not got space to operate
children Sunday Bible Class.
Brethren, we cannot say it
all but wish you visit us and see for yourself. Our efforts to relocate to another
rented property has not been possible either a refusal to rent their property
for church work (Gambia is Islam dominated for now), or the amount demanded
from us to pay is too much on the high side. For instance, the property Christ
Embassy Church is using is owned by a Lebanese Gambian. But because he
charged GMD 100,000(one hundred thousand Gambia dalasi) per annum we
could not afford it and the aforementioned denomination church now use the
place for their church programme.
In light of the above disadvantages concerning where we are
using now, we deem it necessary to have a place of our own. But our challenge
is being able to raise the fund alone, thus this financial appeal. Below is the
total cost needed to have a property of our own for worship.
■ Cost of land...................... GMD 1, 500,000( one million
five hundred thousand dalasi).
■ Cost of edifice................... GMD 2, 500,000 ( two million five hundred
thousand dalasi).
■ Grand total amount needed... GMD 4,000,000( four million dalasi). The
equivalent of US$86,957 at the current exchange rate of US$1 to GMB 46.00.
Please note that the exchange rate is not always permanent; it fluctuates, it
could be higher or lower.
We believe that having a
place of our own will greatly enhance our evangelism work, membership, public
awareness of our location and what we do, and help overcome our toilet, and
other challenges currently experienced.
We thank you in advance for supporting us in the construction of
this worship edifice for the saints of God.
Truly yours in Christ,
Lawrence A. Oshioreame. |
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