BZeal
http://bzeal.antville.org
Zeal for God's house

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Moving to a New Location
by J. Randal Matheny

As the church of God, we are pilgrims on the earth. Here in
Sao Jose dos Campos, the congregation has been a literal
pilgrim in its meeting places.

When two families began the work here in 1988, Alvaro and
Linda Pestana and Otavio and Valeria Carvalho met in a
conference room of the Urupema Hotel. After that period
proved unfruitful, they rented a third-floor office space
downtown. When our family moved here at the beginning of
1995, the church was still located here.

As the full-time evangelist, Alvaro worked in a store-front
evangelism effort popular in Brazil, called the School of
the Bible. I joined him later. Several conversions were made
as a result of this outreach.

At the same time, we began a small-group ministry in homes.
With several combined efforts, the church outgrew the
downtown space and returned to the Urupema Hotel in the late
90s.

In mid-2002, the disiples in SJCampos decided to leave the
Sunday-only location in the hotel and rent a building. The
search lasted nearly a year. During that time, the owners of
Urupema terminated our contract, so we met in two other
hotels during the period of our search.

After a false start on another building, a five-year rent
contract was signed in July for a building about 100 yards
from the main city bus station downtown.

We hope to begin meeting in the new location in September.
There are chairs to buy, dividers to put up for classroom
space, doors to be installed, and a myriad of details. But
the church decided to make the move soon and work on the
needed changes as we go.

Five pictures are online showing interior and exterior views
of the building. http://bzeal.antville.org

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