The Strategy 

In our AYS, we divided the congregation into 7 sections or (as we call them) Family Units. Each unit is responsible for raising $3,500.00 to build one church. In our planning we assume that each unit has approximately 20 members. Each member is asked to give $4.00 per week for one year to complete the project. The expected amount would be $4,160.00 from each family. This would total $29,120.00, which is more than enough to build all 7 churches. This would enable us to give something extra for other necessities or just in case we should fall short by lets say $4,000.00; we would still meet our goal of $24,500.00.                                                                  

(June 2005)   

Our Partner

We are currently working with Global Mission (Adventist Mission) to make sure that this project will be completed. So far we have identified 4 locations on the continent where we will be building our first 4 churches: Nedjo-Levi project, Ethiopia Union: Kyavaghendi –Gad from North Kivu Field, North East Congo Attached Territory : Kakanda-Reuben from Lower Congo Mission, West Congo Union: and Kinkatoto-Judah from West Congo Field, West Congo Union. The church name is derived from combining the name of the community in which the church will be built and the name of the units we have in our church, which are the names of 7 of Jacob’s sons. The number 7 is the number of completion. We believe that this is God’s favorite number and we are confident that His favor will continually be with us.

(July – October 2005)   

Getting There  

So far we have raised $9,734.00. On Youth Day (March 11th) we asked the congregation to give a special offering for our project. We asked for 140 members to give or pledge $100.00 each. We needed to raise another $14,766.00 before July 1st of this year. We have no doubt that God is going to come through for us. When we started we weren’t really sure of the response we’d have received from the congregation, but to God be the glory for what He has already done. The response has been phenomenal and we are now expecting even greater things.

(March 2006)  

Nervous Days

It’s now April and we have not collected much on what we’d gotten so far. We’re not getting discouraged but we are worried. We need to come up with a strategy. Each week we’ll write an article about the work that Global Mission is doing and has done throughout the world. The plan is that we might get those people who don’t come back for our afternoon program to give.

Several people gave and we give God thanks. The pass few weeks have been very difficult. Can’t help but wonder if people are just not interested anymore. Maybe they have realized that $24,500.00 is not a small amount of money to collect in a year. Would this cause them to lean on God in faith? Would they set their faith on fire and give of their best to the Master? Only time will tell.

(April 2006)  

Divine Interruption

On our church calendar we had an Evangelistic Crusade scheduled for June 10 – July 15th. We shifted our focus and everything became secondary to this event, everything including our project. At the end of the Evangelist Crusade, 93 souls were baptized. Even more encouraging were the great number of young people who decided give their lives to the Lord. On July 1st 2006 we made the announcement that this day was the official end of our project. Amazingly we only needed $2,760.00 to reach our goal. 

With victory in sight, we decided to extend the project to August 26th to compensate for the time lost during the Crusade. It was our hope that on that day, we would be able to announce to the church that we have reached our goal.

(July 2006)    

D-day, August 26th 2006 

Mrs. Daisy Orion (formerly of Global Mission, now GC Associate Treasurer) and Bro. Noah Musema (ECD) have been working with us from the beginning. Their prayers and invaluable support for this project cannot go unrecognized. We thank them for listening to a group of young people from a church in Brooklyn New York , and for taking us seriously. Here is an e-mail that was sent to them about the conclusion of collecting funds for the project.  

“Dear Mrs. Orion and Bro. Noah, 

I bring you greetings in the majestic name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. On August 26th I got a few minutes to make one finally appeal to our church for our Global Mission project “To the 7 Churches of Africa.” When I went to church on Sabbath, I was informed by the treasury that we needed a little over $700.00 to reach our goal. I went up and made the final rallying call for our members to help us complete this project that we started a little over a year ago. I knew $700.00 was a lot and so I started having doubts about whether or not we’d be able to reach this amount in one day. We were allowed to give out envelops for those who wanted to help us. When the envelopes came in and we started opening them, my fears got worst. I concluded that we weren’t going to reach the goal. Our treasurer decided that he would give $100.00 dollars to help and two other church sisters (Assistant treasurers) decided that they would make up the difference so we’d reach our goal. I was very appreciative but I would have preferred to end with the combined giving of all our members.

God knows our heart and we knew that He would see us through to the end. We hadn’t finished checking all the envelopes. We were strategizing as to how we could help God complete this project. At some point during the day we must have forgotten the faithfulness of our Lord. After we had solved the problem by our means, God decided to step in and remind us that His hand has always been on this project and that He would be the one to see it to its completion.  

The next envelop we opened had a check in there for the sum of $700.00!! I was in total awe and all I could say was praise be to God! We continued going through the envelopes and we found even more donations to the project. In the end we collected 2 times the amount we needed, bring our collected funds to $25,581.77!! What a mighty God we serve!

 During the week I realize how prominent the number 7 was in what we were doing. During the appeal to the congregation I shared the following information with them:  

We were building 7 churches

We needed 7 hundred dollars to finish the project  

Sabbath was the 238th day of the year. If you divided it by 7 you get 34. Jesus was in His 34th year on earth when He said “It is finished”, today (Sabbath) we are saying that it (our project,) is finished.

It was exactly 14 months since we started the project—that is 2 times 7  

I never understood the meaning of the 14 (2 times 7) until we finished collecting. We had collected twice the amount we needed on the day, Sabbath, the 7th day of the week. 

7 is the number of completion and God really worked it into our project. We thank God for what He has done and for what He’s going to do for our friends in Africa . I also want to thank you for your patients and your prayers. This journey has been great and even though it’s by no means over, I am truly excited about God’s working in and through us.”

Brooklyn Faith AYS

We don’t know what God has done in your life but we have truly seen Him work on our behalf. The Brooklyn Faith Youth Ministries Department would like to thank all of you who gave to this project. We could not have done it without you. As youth, most of us don’t have jobs and we were totally dependent on your faithfulness to complete this project. Words will never be enough to express our gratitude to those of you who brought your coins, one dollar bills, and all you had. God has marked you because of your faith in Him and I know He will surely give you a just reward.

Thank You!