Founded on July 22, 2012, Wujiagang Church of Yichang in Hubei is trying it best to raise money for its first church construction.
In the beginning, the congregation gathered in a rented office and about 30 aged believers attended the Sunday service. During the last few years, a number of young and middle-aged believers rushed into the church and the Sunday attendance has reached around 500 people. However, the gathering place cannot support them anymore.
After two-year prayer and effort, the church received a land of 667 Square meters from the local authority in April 2015. The groundbreaking ceremony of its future church building, Yichang International Christian Church, was held on May 21, 2016. But the construction cannot kick off due to financial difficulty: it can't afford the budget of 20m CNY, with only a total donation of about 1.7m CNY to begin with.
According to the law, the land will be taken back by the government if the construction doesn't start within two years.
So, this October, the senior pastor Rev. Guo Sheng launched an online crowdfunding campaign on Qingsongchou, a hot social networking crowdfunding platform in China, to raise the target fund of 300,000 yuan. Currently, the program has received a total donation of around 200,000 CNY.
The construction is planned to start in middle-to-late November. The future church building can take in 2,100 people, including a wedding chapel, art hall, library, multi-functional room, training center, reception center and banquet hall.
It will be forged as a first-class wedding-themed church, as well as to hold world-class art exhibitions, seminars, and professional music concerts.
Outside the church, there will be a large wedding square, a prayer mountain, a pavilion for devotions and a garden covering more than 200,000 Square Meters.
