Due to the limited space for fellowship activities and cracks in the walls of its earlier annex, a church in China’s eastern-coastal Jiangsu Province is building its auxiliary administration buildings.
Having begun with seven female believers meeting in a private house in 1989, Jinsha Church in Tongzhou District, Nantong, Jiangsu, then rented a more spacious venue which was approved as a gathering site because the number of Christians increased.
Later in April of 1998, the church obtained 0.81 acres of land and started to build the main buildings two years later, which could accommodate above 200 believers. The construction and renovation of the church were completed on Christmas Eve of 2000, costing more than 600,000 yuan. Though providing a place for its members to worship, staff members still lacked rooms for office work or for choir rehearsal.
In addition, the former annex was identified as a dilapidated building because of the cracks in the walls. Elected as the director of the church council, Rev. Qiu Cheng, in his thirties who is now the senior pastor, decided to build the attached buildings after prayers in the struggle.
After starting to arrange construction in March 2019, the church received the approval to build a three-story subsidiary office building with a floor area of 1808.85 square meters (0.45 acres), and passed the building inspection in June of 2022.
Through the constant prayers of the three church staff, the church launched several special donations and group prayer meetings for the construction.
Given the pandemic, Rev. Qiu estimated that all aspects of the construction, including renovations, will be completed in October this year.
- Translated by Abigail Wu
