Bridge, Land and Construction Due to the lack of space for church services (capacity of 350 people), the parking lot (capacity of 40 parking spaces), and Sunday School (7 rooms), New Life Baptist Church decided to buy a piece of land in April of 2006. God allowed us to buy a piece of land right by a new major highway that was a little over 6 acres. We were able to buy the land for a fraction of the normal price for land in the San Salvador area. Because El Salvador is the most densely populated country (that isn't an island) in the Western Hemisphere and San Salvador is even more densely populated, land is extremely expensive going for as much as a million dollars an acre (we got ours for a little over $60,000 an acre). The reason we were able to buy the land cheaper is because there is a ditch between the highway access road and the piece of land over 300 feet across and as deep as 60 feet! When we purchased the land, the engineers told us that the bridge would cost about $250,000 and that it would be finished by the end of 2006. Unfortunately, the bids for the bridge were much higher, averaging more than $700,000! There were a few things that the engineers didn't take into account when they estimated the cost without being able to do a detailed analysis. Because of the high cost, we haven't been able to build the bridge and have concentrated on getting the government permits and drawing up the plans for the worship center and the Sunday School, Administration, Christian Bilingual School , and Orphanage buildings. It has been frustrating because we decided not to go to 3 Sunday morning services since we were going to move to the new location by the start of 2007. Unfortunately, by continuing with only 2 Sunday morning services, our growth has stagnated for the first time in our history. On October 14, we made the decision to go to 3 services since we now think that it will be another 18 months to 2 years before we are able to move. It was great to see the attendance increase by 60 people on the very first “3 service Sunday”! Recently, one of the engineers in our church, Enrique Huezo (who is heading up the construction effort), found a way to reduce the cost for the construction of the bridge. He has come up with a plan to use a combination of land fill, retention walls, and a bridge to cross the creek and reduced the cost to $350,000. Since we see no other alternatives, we have decided to proceed by faith and hope to complete the bridge by February of next year. Please pray for God's provision to cover the cost of the construction of the bridge. We still need $250,000. Please pray also for God's provision for the cost of putting in the infrastructure necessary to build a Sunday School/Christian Bilingual School, an administrative building, a parking lot, and a tent for the worship center. These are the bare essentials to be able to move from our present location to the new location. We will have to borrow the money for part of it and then will pay off the loan after we sell our current property and facilities. God has been incredibly faithful providing for the purchase of the land and we believe he will do the same for the construction. We believe that He wants us to do this to be able to reach more people with the Gospel and glorify Him while doing it. Remember, this project is not only important to move New Life Baptist Church but also to have a headquarters for Good News In Action and a seminary that will help prepare the many missionaries needed to reach the more than 220 million lost people who live in the MetroAmérica 020 area.
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