That isn’t a spelling mistake. I make a lot of them, so I am not offended if you thought it was.

The Arkadelphia Church plant is growing well. We have regular attendance now of 35 to 40 persons. We need to start thinking “church building.” So we started a building fund three weeks ago.

That was a pretty hefty goal for our group. I mentioned that we have average attendance at about 37. Now look at the breakdown. Averages from the last three weeks: 12 children, 8 students, 17 adults. The first two groups don’t have an income.

The 17 adults, statistically, break down like this:

                5 not-yet-SDA’s

                3 retired persons

                3 minimum wage or less workers (including two Bible workers).

                4 self-supporting workers (including Heidi and I)

                2 regularly employed persons (both in the $25k to $35k range).

I estimate the gross income for the entire baptized membership of the church plant, for the month of November, to be about $10,500.

Now here is what is amazing. The church building fund is already at $2,729! How did it come to pass? The widow’s might. Each one is doing what they can and giving, understand this word, sacrificially. It is not a common thing these days, in the US, sacrifice.

Heidi and I haven’t gone without any needed convenience. But we decided to give one month’s salary to the building fund. For us it just means paying a service charge on our bank account and paying off our mortgage one month later. That isn’t much sacrifice. Oh, and we are selling the arrow heads we have found over the last couple years…part of the money to the building fund and part of it to India.

And we are laying up treasure in heaven.

Some of our students decided to take part of their winter earnings (earnings they use to reduce their bills at the missionary college where I teach) for the building fund.

Others are more private about what they are giving…but they must have given, cumulatively, almost a second tithe to the building fund this month.

This is what Heidi and I decided to do. We gave our month’s worth of stipend two weeks ago. Now, we wonder if any of you would help our little church plant building fund? By giving a week’s worth of your earnings? Or a day’s worth? A month…that might be too much to ask from any one else.

But if you give three day’s worth, there are a dozen little children who will thank you when they have Sabbath School rooms for each of the children’s divisions.

And you will be laying up treasure in heaven. That is the widow’s might. No thief can take it there.

If you decide you can help, you can make checks to “Amity SDA Church” with “Arkadelphia Building Fund” in the memo and mail them to Herbert Polk, PO Box 170, Amity, AR 71921. (He is the treasurer for the church plant.) You might want to include a note to Mr. Polk that has the word “Arkadelphia” so that he is not dependent on the memo. Or you could just mail it to my attention instead (same address) and I will give it to him.

A month, a week, three days, or one. Working together the Adventist church can build a home for a family of students, missionaries, interested persons, and children.

Be faithful,

Eugene

Be faithful,

Eugene