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sinking sand |
Kapsule
“The foolish man built his house upon the sand…”
It has been a noisy month around the neighborhood as
construction workers repair damage caused by sinking ground.
Sengendai was built about 20 years ago, out of rice paddies.
The land is unstable and is still sinking, to this day. Our
apartment, the sidewalks, the roads… everything around here
has sunk about 10 inches. But, the church next door has NOT
sunk. I guess it’s built upon a rock.
As the church remained in place and all the surrounding
ground sunk away, huge cracks appeared and pieces of
concrete jutted out here and there. So, the owner of the
building where we meet is building new walks and pouring new
concrete to repair the damage.
When he gets it all repaired, the building will be in great
shape. It’s 4 floors (our church renting 2 of them), with an
elevator, and very clean. Last week, one of our elders asked
me if I thought we could buy the building for $3 million. I
don’t know, but that’s an awful lot for a church of 30
people.
This is the situation churches in Japan find themselves,
though. With only 2 out of 1000 people following the Lord,
the average size is 30. And the price of land is absolutely
outrageous.
Sengendai church is making formal application to the
national church, to be accepted into the denomination and
make the transition from the mission to the denomination.
This is a very important step for us, in order to get a
pastor. However, the denomination would like us to have land
and a building first – or that becomes their burden.
We will need a great miracle to ever have our own place in
this city with the cost of land here. It seems impossible to
us, but would you pray with us?
Thank you.
David & Evangeline Kindervater
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Konnecting
with the
Kindervaters
in Japan