First Sunday

How great is that! Our church moved out of the rented house and moved into the unfinished first floor of the educational building! 117 attended the first Sunday service. There is still a lot to do to finish this classroom building and then to build the auditorium, but we are looking forward to seeing the progress each week. The church can put the rent money into the construction fund. If you would like to help, just let us know by e-mail or comment. We'll let you know how you can contribute.

Building Update

Here I am, standing on the 2nd floor of the educational building! That means that the first floor is now covered. What a good feeling! We have seen a lot of progress the past few months. God has been more than gracious to us, and we are thankful. Now we are starting to get walls built so that soon we can use the first floor of the building.
We must begin to meet at the property on July 5. We know that the conditions will be "rustic" until the building can be finished properly, but we are still very excited. The people of the church have been acting on faith, and God has responded. We are all very grateful.

Construction Progress

Thank the Lord our church building is now starting to go up as well as down! We are so pleased to see some progress in the construction of our church's future meeting and ministry place. There is still a long, long way to go. So keep us in your prayers. Any contributions for this project are greatly appreciated and can be sent through Baptist Bible Fellowship International, PO Box 191, Springfield, MO 65801. Be sure to include a note that your gift is for the building in Manta, Ecuador, part of Tony Anzalone's ministry. Offerings given through BBFI are tax deductible. Right now, each $10 contribution makes it possible for us to build one square foot of the first floor of our education building.
This weekend, from Friday night to Saturday night, the church will have 24 HOURS of PRAYER. More than 60 people have signed up for specific time slots in order to have a continual stream of prayer for the needs of our world, country, city and church. I am very excited about this. We will end on Saturday at 6:00 PM with a one-hour unified prayer meeting. Please join with us in taking every request to God's throne of grace.

Clearing Land

The land is cleared and ready for the next step! It was encouraging to see the dump truck drive away with the last load of unwanted rubble. Now we are ready to see dump trucks drive in with loads of things we need. Please continue to pray for the building project for the church in Manta. We would love to be meeting on the property by June of 2009.

Building Design

We have received some of the early plans and designs for the church building in Manta! It is very exciting to think about this actually being built on the vacant lot the church now owns. The part on the right would be built first. It includes an auditorium, a nursery, and offices. The building to the left would mostly consist of classrooms. This picture doesn't show many of the details that are yet to be worked out, but it is consistent with the basic concept we have had in mind since first seeing the property. Please keep this process in your prayers as we seek the funding for construction.

As Busy as a Bee

After several of us spent a few hours one afternoon clearing a small corner of the property, one of the men decided to save us all a lot of time and blisters. He enlisted the help of a friend with a heavy equipment service. Okay, so we missed the joy of fellowship of men working together, but what would have taken us a couple of hundred man-hours, took just a few. All of the trash, debris, and dry brush is now ready to be carted off. There were a couple of delays because of angry swarms of yellow-jackets. The equipment operator had to abandon the driver's seat on one occassion, but he escaped with only one sting. We waited for about an hour for the insects to calm down. In spite of their ferocious activity they did not defeat the orange monster that had invaded their territory. Soon the driver could get back to his perch at the controls, and in no time the job was done.

A Time for Work and a Time for Rest

On Sunday we had 90 in church and had our first work day at the new property later in the afternoon. There is a lot of dried brush and trash on the lot. Clearing it gives us a chance to work as a congregation, have fellowship, and build a sense of teamwork and unity. I believe that holding regular "mingas" (an Ecuadorian term for community workdays) at the property and on the building as it goes up will be very positive. Several of the faithful men got together this time, and I expect the number will increase in future opportunities.
Work is a good thing. Too much work is not. God gives us the ability to work and to produce, but he also expects us to take a break. The principle of the sabbath involves both rest and worship. Step away from your labors and give thanks to God, remember who He is and what He has done. Refresh yourself and recharge. In our ministry I have seen people who struggle because they do not have the ability or the opportunity to work, to use their abilities, and to provide for their family's needs through their labors. God always comes through somehow to prove that he will not leave them or foresake them. Others struggle because they work too much. They are afraid of what might happen if they took a break, rested their bodies, and spent time nurturing their families or serving the needs of others. Could God supply if they acknowledged their need for sabbath rest? God has his ways of getting their attention.
What is your attitude toward work and rest?

It's Already September

Let's catch up on some things that happened in August:

Joy and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary.

Our daughter Ashley celebrated her 22nd birthday.

Joy's parents visited us for about 3 weeks. Joy's father, Rev. Ted Wille, preached a series of sermons on the subject of stewardship for our church.

The response to the stewardship messages was excellent. The congregation made a faith promise of over $300 per month for our building project, and over 20 people commited to tithe faithfully for the general needs of the church's ministry.

We started weekly youth Bible study. The young people are accepting the challenge to read and memorize the Bible. In the weekly meetings we answer questions about their daily reading and talk about applications to their life. Luis and Melanea are assisting me with this group.

We are thankful for the way God has provided the needed funds for the purchase of the land for a future church building. Thank you for your generous contributions and prayer support for this project.

Summer Slump

It's easy for me to forget to blog when I'm busy doing the business of ministry yet it doesn't seem like anything exciting is happening. In truth, there are lots of exciting, even miraculous things happening every day. The beauty of the Christian life is seeing God's involvement in the daily grind through the eye of faith. God is at work in the young man who wants to turn his life around and attends church and his discipleship meeting faithfully for five weeks. He is at work in the hearts of those who look for ways to share with those who are in greater need than they are. He is faithful to supply enough hours in the day and enough days in the week to accomplish every task, plus give us a little more strength so we can share a smile and a few minutes with an unexpected visitor. His hand is not still. He is busily engaged in the details.
Everything moves forward. We are growing closer to the deadline for the purchase of property for the Manta church. We are still about $8,000 short of the goal, but a bit more comes in each week. Seven of our supporting churches and three individuals or families have made contributions to our project fund. We are very thankful for their involvement.
At the beginning of August there will be a new rotation of Sunday School teachers. Joy has made plans for a small expansion of the teaching team. We are praying that all of the workers in this ministry will be faithful to such a big commitment.

Father's Day

We had a busy and exciting weekend. Saturday we celebrated our first wedding in Manta. A couple of young adults, Luis and Melanea, tied the knot. Luis is a relatively new Christian who came to Christ through the testimony of Melanea's family and our church. He has been baptized and met with me weekly for a while to learn the basics of Christian discipleship. Melanea has been a believer since childhood and grew up in church in another city. She has been a faithful part of our church, along with her mother and sister. Luis and Melanea spent a number of hours with Joy and me in recent months preparing for marriage. May God bless them with a happy, long-lasting union.
Also on Saturday, the Travesía ministry had a fruitful afternoon. They always have a good attendance of children, but the number of adults attending has steadily increased as well. The leaders are very excited because they are beginning to see evidence of understanding and belief among those who listen to the Bible studies. On Saturday, seven adults opened their hearts to God in prayer for salvation! Please pray for the men and women who minister in Travesía as they confront the challenge of teaching the Bible to these adults who, for the most part, do not read. Pray with us about an adult literacy program for this community.
On Sunday our church attendance was a bit lower than usual. On Father's Day in Manta, kids go to the beach with dad, and mom stays home to cook an extra-special dinner. However, we had 12 dads present for the morning service. That's twice as many as last year.
After church we met with around 25 people from the church at the property we are in the midst of purchasing. Most of them had not seen the property. They were very happy to consider the possibilities of such a fine location. We spent a short time there in prayer, asking God to make his plans and projects a reality through our lives.
Be praying this week for a group of servants from Blue Ridge Baptist Temple in Kansas City, MO who will be ministering with us in Manta. They will be here from Wednesday to Monday.

Progress on Land Purchase

In an earlier post we mentioned a small plot of land that we are raising money to buy for a church building in Manta. Last month we received a number of special offerings for the fund. Please continue to pray for this purchase. The opportunity and need are very great.

Property for Church Building

Our son Teddy is standing in front of the property where we believe God is opening doors for us to build a church building in Manta. We are praying that He will allow us to raise the money for the land and buildings. You can help us by contributing any size gift to the Baptist Bible Fellowship International's Project Offering Fund, designating your gift to the Anzalone's church building in Manta, Ecuador (C-3202-062). The address is Baptist Bible Fellowship, PO Box 191, Springfield MO 65801. All gifts through the Baptist Bible Fellowship are tax deductible and 100% of your gift will be applied to this project. E-mail us if you have any questions.