THE PROVIDENCE

 

It was really time to change, but we didn't realize it. In fact, the hall was already too small to house the church, especially on Sundays when many were satisfied watching the services, standing outside looking out the windows.

We had only been there for a few months, although we had a two-year lease, and we had paid six months' rent in advance. What we really wanted was to settle there in that little corner of heaven and spend day after day feasting with the Lord Ours, who lives and reigns forever. Until one day the owner of the house where the church was meeting came and said: "I'm going to sell the building, and you have to leave for another place." Our reaction was immediate. We said we had a two-year contract, and we had nowhere to go. If we really had to leave, we wanted a deadline of at least two months. He said, "I'll give you two days."

Evangelical Church of Bafatá (second place of worship) 1986

 

                             We gathered the church and reported what had happened. The church wept, put its face to the ground and cried out to God. Suddenly a joy invaded my heart, so I screamed. "Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for battle and my fingers for war."

                        That's it brothers. God wants us to build our own temple. The church began to vibrate with joy, but as always there are those who would like to have a faith the size of a heap, however, it does not move a mustard seed in the work of the church. Someone said, wanting to splash cold water on the brothers' spirits: “We don't have anything in a box”. Build with what? Like? But another brother cried out from the back: “God has given me a word in Haggai 2:8, 'Mine is the  silver and gold is mine, said the Lord of hosts’”. Yes, I replied. We have no recourse at the moment, however, we are children of the One who owns all the gold and all the silver. We just have to ask him what we need. Well, well! Tomorrow we will begin plans for the construction of the new temple. And the terrain? Ask someone. The land we already have. I told you. At where? Do not know yet. I said. Tomorrow we are going to the city hall to requisition our land. They released land for other institutions. Ours must be there ready, waiting for us to take over.

                      We arrived in the city hall, looked for the right person, and presented our request. He said, "Just on Sunday, walking in front of your church, I was thinking that you are late in building a temple." They were all huddled together to watch the work. "They looked like sardines in cans."

                        Continuing, he said: “Look, I have land that is well located. In reality, there are three plots of land together at the entrance to the city, facing the main avenue, on the right side as you enter. I'm going to show you right now, if you please yourselves, it's yours”.

                        For those who didn't have any, now having three lands, we were like those who dream, laughing and thanking God for faithfulness.

          Land donated by the Bafatá administration

                           Then a rush began. The people were excited. Some went into the woods to cut wood for the fence, others dug the foundations, while some carried stones and placed them in ditches to receive the foundation cement. Also, there were people manufacturing adobe, cooking, carrying water, etc.

                            The dream began to take shape. The walls went up each day and the Lord supplied everything needed. In many ways, resources and cooperation showed up.

 

                                Pastor José Ferreira laying blocks on the walls of the first temple in Bafatá

 

                         A teacher, a member of the church, did not have time to work on the work, but would love to help. I told him that he should tell this to the Lord, as he was the owner of everything and would undoubtedly have a solution. The teacher started to get up at four o'clock in the morning and go to the Geba River to fish and everything he fished, before going to classes, he sold at the market. At night, he brought the fruit of his labor to be spent on the work. It was such a good experience that he always had to witness how God worked in his life, how he managed to fish sometimes much more than the professionals.

                                 An Indonesian missionary sister, working in Brazil and had recorded a CD with gospel songs, learned of the brothers' efforts to build a temple, and sent the proceeds from the sale of the CDs to be used in the work. Several brothers who never got to know them cooperated with that work. May God add to your accounts in heaven!

                                                                 Brothers working on the construction of the temple  

                          We hired a man to remove the straw in the woods and prepare them for the covering, as the brothers predicted that on May 15th the first rains would begin to fall.

                          To our disappointment when we looked for this man he had simply disappeared. And now? We didn't have any more time. The place where the plant was abundant was very far from where we were... And a rain on those bare walls would be fatal. Everything would come down.

                          The church again stood at the Lord's feet, insistently asking Him to perform a miracle, for we had no more ideas that we could put into practice.

 

                                                              Brethren praying about temple coverage

                             A brother arriving from the capital saw that the brothers were gathered together and crying, he also entered the group and began to pray, but at a certain moment he approached the place where I was and asked why the brothers were praying. I said, "The straw man has run away, and the rain will bring down the wall if God doesn't interfere."

                           That brother with the greatest naturalness in the world told me: “I was at the mission headquarters in Bissau before coming here. The church in Holland donated thousands of aluminum sheets to the church in Guinea to cover temples. The plates have already arrived and the brothers were unloading when I left there. There were a lot of people already waiting to try to receive some of the plates, but it seems that it was decided that they would only receive those who had the work ready for coverage”, he said. So I said to the church: “Brothers, you can stop asking God, He has already answered your prayers. Now let's just say thank you. I'm going to Bissau to get the aluminum sheets that the Lord gave us. Tomorrow I will be back to continue the work”, he said.

   The next day we arrived back in Bafatá bringing the blessing, one hundred and twenty plates, one meter wide and three meters long. We covered the entire hall, and there was still a good area in the back for the children's play.

                              We ended the coverage on the fifteenth of May. As we nailed the last sheets together, the sky darkened and a copious rain fell. Even on the roof, we thank God for his faithfulness.

                                                                        Temple ready for finishing

                                 Our voices, with the sound of drops falling on the roof sheets, formed an authentic postlude of a work that every cubic millimeter had the marks of God's finger.

      

                                First Evangelical Temple of Bafatá of the First Evangelical Church (Inaugurated in 1987)

                          A day later, the temple was inaugurated with a thanksgiving service. Several brothers went down to the baptismal waters. There was consecration of workers to the presbytery and diaconate. And all honor, and glory to the Lord Jesus our Master.

                  Several brothers went down to the baptismal waters