Greetings Family, Friends and Supporter of Mission Guatemala!
It is our prayer that your new year has started off well. We are doing fine. At this writing Byron has returned back to Guatemala where he is teaching the book of Revelation in our full-time program for ITL. Hi remained in the U.S. for another week to visit a few congregations in the Texas area. Once he returns, he will begin teaching Letters of Paul 3 (1 Thessalonians - Philemon) in our ITL Saturday program and Byron will teach Old Testament 3 (Job - Ecclesiastes). We solicit your prayers for our effort in 2013 to serve the Lord's church in Guatemala.
The reason we are writing is to update you on the progress of the fund raising efforts. We are very thankful to God for such an great response that we have had thus far to our request and believe that if the funds continue to be committed at the pace in which they are coming in, then we will have most if not all of the needed funds. Before give you the numbers, allow us to remind you briefly of the details of this opportunity.
From the last message that we sent to everyone in our database we made known of a special opportunity that we have to purchase both the house we are renting and the house where ITL, our preaching training school, is located. The owner of the house where we live is the son of the lady who owns the property where ITL meets. Due to circumstances beyond their control they need to sell both properties and have given us first option to buy both of them before they place them on the market. The owner of our house plans to ask for $95,000 for his house but is willing to sell it to us for $70,000. It is a four-bedroom, 4 1/2 bath house, with two additional rooms that can be converted into bedrooms. The second property, which joins our house, is what we presently use for ITL. It includes a three-bedroom, 3-½ bath house, a two-bedroom, one bath apartment, and a studio apartment. Presently, our students live there and all of our classes for the school take place there. Remember that we have both a full-time program and a Saturday program. This property belongs to our landlord’s mother. She is willing to sell us her property for $80,000. We believe that this presents us with a great opportunity for our work and want to take advantage of it.
As you can see, the total for both properties will be $150,000. We already had $80,000 that we previously raised to purchase property for ITL. This means that we were needing $70,000 when our first request went out on December 29, 2012. Thankfully, since that first e-mail God has blessed us with $45,400 of the needed funds thus far. Of these funds $23,500 have been donated by 6 congregations and the remainder has been donated by individuals. While we do not feel comfortable putting a list of our contributors in a general e-mail, we will be glad to send a complete detailed list of supporters for anyone wishing to receive one. We are thankful to God that we now only need to raise $24,600 to purchase both properties, which we hope to do. However, if we do not get to the desired total amount, we plan to apply for a loan for the difference so that we can still take advantage of this tremendous offer for our work.
Please allow us to remind you of some of the advantages for this purchase:
- The price for both properties is good for the area where they are located.
- We will no longer be paying rent and that money can be used in other areas of the ministry.
- Since the properties are next to one another, this provides an opportunity for the expansion of ITL as it grows.
- We are already in the facilities. We have lived in our house since 2000 and have rented the other property for ITL since 2009.
- The properties are centrally located for both the full-time students and for those who study on Saturday. Our full-time students are close to shopping and the other things they need for daily living. It is a fairly easy commute for our Saturday students to come where we are presently located.
- The properties are located in a safe area. Since we also have teachers who come from the U.S. to teach, this is very important.
- By purchasing the property, we will avoid the additional costs entailed in having to move our residence and the location of the school, and having to rent another house and another facility for ITL, which would likely be much more expensive than what we are currently paying for both.
If you have already sent funds to help us, thank you very much. If you have not we are calling on you to prayerfully consider helping us purchase these properties. If you can help us, we assure you that your donation will be put to its greatest use. We are also asking if you could inform as many people as you know about the great opportunity with which we have been blessed. We would like to say “yes” to the sellers by the 1st of February. So, we need to hear from you as soon as you can to let us know if you can help. You have more than one option to get your donation to us. You can go to our secured website and donate online by clicking here. You can also send your tax-deductible donation to our overseeing congregation at the following address:
Kingsley Terrace Church of Christ
c/o Dwaine Himes/Guatemala Mission
2031 E. 30th Street
Indianapolis, IN 46218
Please note on your form of payment “Guatemala Property Fund.” If you would like to make a contribution to this effort but need to send it over time (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc), that would be fine also. What is important at this time is that we know the funds that are being committed for the purchase, even if they do not come in until later.
We are attaching pictures of the properties. We are also attaching an electronic “Property Donation Intent Form” to this message. This form differs slightly from the first form in that there is a section for those wishing to donate over time. Whether you donate online or through regular mail, please, send us this form through e-mail so that we can know more precisely the funds that have been raised for this purchase. We will continue to keep everyone posted as we raise funds.
We close this message with a sincere THANK YOU for the love and concern that you have for the Lord’s work in Guatemala. We also thank you for being a part of this most important effort. Please help us get the word out to as many as possible about the opportunity we have with the purchase of these two properties. Please remember to keep the work in Guatemala and us in your daily prayers.
May God bless each of you with a wonderful 2013 of service to Him. We hope to hear from you soon.
We love you!
Hawatthia
Byron
“Teaching the CENTRAL MESSAGE in CENTRAL AMERICA!”