A BRIEF SUNNARY OF THE CHURCH BUILDING PROCESS Travis Avenue Baptist Church

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1 A BRIEF SUNNARY OF THE CHURCH BUILDING PROCESS Travis Avenue Baptist Church Glory Chinese Baptist Church (the Church) was established in October Reverent Warren Wang as the pastor and Travis Avenue Baptist Church (3001 Travis Ave., Fort Worth) was the first location of the Church. The Church moved three times during the first two years to various locations. With the grace of God, four Baptist churches associated to the Southern Baptist Convention supported and helped us. In addition to the Church s first location at TABC, the following churches hosted us. Listed below are the churches in chronological order: Travis Avenue Baptist Church (3001 Travis Ave., Fort Worth) Worth) Brentwood Hills Primitive Baptist Church (1451 Handley Dr., Fort Sagamore Hill Baptist Church (4400 Panola Ave., Fort Worth) Brentwood Hills Primitive Baptist Church (1451, Handley Dr., Fort Worth); Sagamore Hill Baptist Church (4400, Panola Ave., Fort worth); and North Richland Hills Baptist Church (4001 Vance Rd. North Richland Hills) With the assistance of the Convention and the support of North Richland Hill Baptist Church (4001, Vance Road, North Richland Hills), we were able to rent an independent church building for congregational worship and gathering in October, This was proved to be a great opportunity for the Church s advancement. 12 A reflection of the past 12 years shows that God is graceful to the Church. Although the Church s first pastor Rev. Warren Wang was sent to a new ministry in Los Angeles, CA, God prepared Rev. Mak and Rev. Kwok ( Ph. D students at the SWBTS) as well as Rev. Albert Hong and Rev. Liu (professors of the Taiwan Baptist Theological Seminary), and Minister Peter

2 Tie (student of Dallas Theology Seminary) to take care the congregation. ( NET) God imparted to us such a vision through his servant Reverent Jefferson Lin that north Tarrant County needed a Chinese church. With this vision we confirmed our commitment to the Chinese population residing in the northeast Tarrant County area. The Church s ministries were constrained because of the limited square footage of the building. We could not afford rooms for Sunday School class and fellowship activities. The congregation at the Church became eager to have more spaces to facilitate different church ministries Sister Tai-Lee Nee Ke passed away in May, According to her will, the survived family arranged a brief funeral service for her and saved a sum of money as an offering to the Church. The offering was specified as church building fun Reverent Solomon Liu and family immigrated to the U.S. from Taiwan. Rev. Liu became the pastor of the Church in August, A formal church building fund was dedicated in The projection was to spend half a million to purchase an old church building. Within northeast Tarrant County, however, there was never an old church building available to meet the Church s need and fit the plan. Some appeared to be over the budget and others seemed to be too remote. In the search for an ideal one two years past The congregation adjusted the plan for church building in The budget was increase to 1 million. Two hundred thousand to buy land and the rest to build the church building. Soon the land at the current location was purchased and the church building committee was formed,

3 members were: Wu, Ernest Chernly, CH Feng, Tiger Ho, Ivan Hu, Jerry Krueger, Dennis Liu, Solomon Sheng, David Wang, Yuan Wei, John Yam, Alan Yang, Chisheng 2007 Mr. James Ezell James Ezell NRH City While we started to look for the builder in 2007, God Mr. s guidance led us to meet Mr. James Ezell. His basic concept was to focus on the functional layout rather than the building unique appearance to meet the Church s need for ministries. We formally contracted Mr. Ezell to be the architect to start the design and to coordinate with the City of North Richland Hill s James The year of 2008 was a year for the Church to continue to build up her faith in God. Because of the recession we were told that the budget would have to be increased to 1.15 million to meet the need. The Holy Spirit unified the congregation in relying on the faithfulness of God. With no objection the entire congregation and the church building committee voted to increase the budget and keep the project going.

4 Mr. Ezell suddenly passed away without the faintest sign in the end of His sudden departure posted another test to the congregation s faith having to decide whether the project should continue or halt Mr. Terry Cunningham Thanks be to God. The building committee hired Mr. Terry Cunningham to be the architect to continue the project Craig Everett Inc. Mr. Greg Young 135 The ground break ceremony was held in June, 2009 after contracted Craig Everett Inc. as the builder. By then the budget was inflated to 1.35 million. The congregation stayed firm in faith to God Building permit was issue in October Building construction started right away During the construction the drainage wall located on the north side of the site collapsed, caused a threat on the building foundation, and the construction had to shut down immediately. The City had the section repaired in three weeks and the construction resumed. Should there had been heavy rain during the three weeks, the construction site foundation would have been badly destructed. Thank God for His protection Concern was raised in Fall, 2010 about the single floor plan originally architected. It was foreseen that a second floor would have to add to the building in order to provide more space for Sunday School classes. The second floor projection, which as the second phrase to be executed after 10 years, was activated immediately now to add to the current building plan. With this addition another amount of 30 hundred thousand was imposed to the budget. The amazing might of God was revealed once again. The congregation passed the activation uniformly. In the Christmas Eve, during the manger offering, a church building fund of 14 hundred thousand was yielded to Lord Jesus the Head of the Church for the second floor

5 construction The progress of the construction was once sluggish during 2011 and the congregation had to wait for its completion with great patience. Deacon Ernest Wu, who suffered chronic diseases for years, beat the triple-digit heat and harsh conditions at the construction site to supervise the progress. The faithful God kept deacon Wu by granting him strength to overcome not only the Texas heat but also cancer cells. 10 The construction complete in October, Certificate of Occupancy was issue by the City /6 The church s door opening ceremony and the first Sunday worship service were held on November 6, 2011 at the new building. This day marked the Church Majesty /18 s services. 16 s new era in His The first Baptismal service in the new building was held in December 18, The Second Christmas Eve manger offering was held. An amount of 16 thousand hundred was yield to the glory of Christ the Lord and the amount was paid towards the principle of the mortgage. 200 To count the many blessings, the Church s building fund by now is above 2 million. All, except and amount of five thousand was donated to us from our brother church Fort Worth Chinese Baptist Church, are love offerings from the Church s congregation. We thank God for giving such a loving heart to the brothers and sisters at the Church. To conclude: we are undeserved, yet with the love and compassion of God we have had a chance to contribute to the holy temple of God, and God provides to us all we need. We are affirmed that this is a building God has given to us instead of thinking about that we have

6 offered something to God. All good things are from God. We praise Him. Halleluiah! Glory be to His holy name. Amen!