By Emilee Shake
Washington Times-Herald
WASHINGTON —
A local church is experiencing the provision of God in the form of a new roof, Grace Baptist Church pastor Louis Showers said.
The church had been sporting the original roof from its 1979 construction. The congregation knew the roof was wearing, Showers said, and probably wouldn’t last another year.
The only problem was funding.
“Unfortunately, the funds were always really tight,” Showers said. “We began doing some research and through the association that we’re part of, they have what they call a Baptist Builders Club.”
The club, he said, gives out grants to smaller churches for projects such as this or to new church plants. The church petitioned for funds to cover the materials, which were estimated a little over $9,000.
“They gave us almost all we needed,” he said. “They gave us $7,000.”
The labor, however, was estimated between $18,000 and $20,000.
“Fortunately, Continental Baptist Missionaries is a branch that goes around the country to small churches and new churches that need to have maybe a building put up or a roof repaired or replaced,” Showers said.
After contacting them, Continental Baptist Missionaries, or CBM, agreed to send missionaries to do the roofing work, saving the church a significant amount of money.
Still, they were about $2,000 short.
“We didn’t know where we were coming up with the other $2,000,” Showers said. “We met as a congregation, and we prayed about it.”
Two days later, the owner of the restaurant beside the church asked to purchase part of the land to provide additional parking for his customers. The amount he offered the church covered what was needed for the roofing project with a significant amount left over.
“We were thrilled about the way God put all this together for us,” Showers said. “He has been doing a number of things like this for the last couple of years. It’s just amazing the number of ways he has provided for us.”
The group of missionaries from CBM are part of the “Nehemiah Project.” They are four couples from various states around the country. While most missionaries raise support from individuals and churches, those with Nehemiah Project work on a volunteer basis. They’re all retired and now travel to various places in the United States and Canada doing work projects or building Independent Baptist churches.
“This is a typical Nehemiah Project,” said Steve Meyer, the project leader from Glasgow, Ky. “We just go and help people out.”
Meyer and his wife have worked on some projects that have lasted up to four years, though some last only a couple weeks.
Meyer and others on the Nehemiah Project travel in RVs. Individuals from the church where they’re working find a place where they can park and plug into water and electricity for the duration of the project.
In addition to the couples with Nehemiah Project, five or six men from a church in Kokomo are coming to work Thursday through Saturday.
Through CBM, various churches volunteer to participate in mission trips to places where projects are taking place. That is how the church in Kokomo got connected, Showers said.
“God answered our prayers,” Showers said. Grace Baptist Church not only received all the funding necessary, but also labor was provided.
