Building for the Philippines - impacting a community

House of Grace Church, the Newfrontiers church in Manila in the Philippines was planted by Eden & Fe Singson who had moved back to Manila from Dubai in 2002 after being in the Newfrontiers church there. The church has been meeting on the top floor of an office block which has been kindly provided by one of the church members, however as the church has grown the need for their own building has also grown. Below is an interview with Eden about this project and God's amazing provision as it continues:

Q: Why does the church need a new building?
Eden: Due to the growing number of people we are seeing coming through our doors and into the church, we believe we need a bigger space to accommodate more people. In addition, as the place we are currently meeting is on the 4th floor of a building with no lift, access for the elderly is limited and we would like space with a ground floor where access is a lot easier and we can see more from that area of the community.

Q: What do you hope to achieve with the new building?
Eden: When Steve Brading came over to the Philippines, he gave us a prophetic word that we should be a growing church of 250 people and we want to see that happen. Our goal essentially is to have a bigger impact on the community around us.

Q: When did the building project start?
Eden: The work for the new church building officially started September 14th 2010.

Q: How far have you got?
Eden: We have finished all the foundations and ground work as well as putting in 22 columns and beams. The foundations take allot of work as we have to build with the possibility of Earthquakes in mind.

Q: What is the next stage?
Eden: We need to put a slab down to create the roof for the ground floor (floor for the first floor)  and a concrete perimeter on the ground floor. Once this has been done we can move in to the building and use the ground floor while we continue to raise money for the rest of the building.

Q: What amazing things have happened so far? How has God miraculously provided?
Eden: Even just last Friday, we had an anonymous gift from England of £10,000 which was just an incredible blessing. Also when we were looking to buy our land we received another anonymous gift of £40,000 and God just really provided exactly the right piece of land to buy. The Philippines also has allot of corruption and not much happens without bribing people, so it has been amazing to see God providing the necessary building permits without doing this.

Q: How are you going to serve the community with this building?
Eden: We’re looking to build a three storey building. We want the ground floor to act as a school; firstly, to generate some income to help with finances- not only for the building project but that we can use for mission and secondly, to draw in the community- to not just send the kids to school and instill in them Christian values but also to bring in people that will come to our church meetings. The second floor will be our meeting place- our area for Sunday and Wednesday night meetings and an area for the church. And then the third floor will be an open space, available for the community to rent and use.

Q: What are the main points we can pray for?
Eden: Shortly we will be meeting with engineers to see whether the money we have just received is enough for the next stage of building work we need to go ahead. Money not only from donations but raised through our church- including events like a garage sale and also ongoing concerts where we not only hope to raise finances but impact people in the community. So please pray not only that the money we have will be enough but also that we can see people impacted through events like the concerts which are seeing around one hundred people coming in.