We have an opportunity to purchase this building for a very low cost, and turn an old bar into a Baptist Church building!
This is a building that we have been praying about since we have been meeting directly across the river from here for over 2 years, and I finally found who the owner was yesterday. The building is for sale. It is around 1800 square feet inside, sitting on about 1/4 of an acre with plenty of parking, on the 1/3 busiest street in the area (including major highways). It needs a lot of work, which I am able to do myself. It was last sold for around $350,000, and has not been open for about 6 years. The last person who tried to open it died of a heart attack, and it reverted back to the person who is selling it now. Due to the work that is needed and the fact that it cannot be mortgaged, he is asking $110,000, and is willing to carry a contract on $50,000 of that (so we need to come up with a down payment of $60,000).
One bonus that it offers is that one end of the building has been wired, plumbed, and permitted as a laundromat. If we were to keep that end separate from the church meeting space and actually open it as a laundromat, it could pay off the rest of the mortgage, and help facilitate other church planting expenses.
For those of you who do not know about me and our church plant, my name is Jared Watkins. Grace Baptist Church (Pastor Steven Harper) in Cle Elum, Washington, sent us out in January of 2023 to plant a church in Los Molinos, California, a rural town of about 2000 people in Northern California. We established Grace and Truth Baptist Church in September of 2023. When our initial plan for a building fell through, we began meeting in Mill Creek Park, which is directly across the river from this building. We meet year round in the park, which has benches to meet on, and is surrounded by three mobile home parks, giving us plenty of ministry opportunities. We have seen souls saved and baptized and added to the church.
Depending upon what we have going on, we may have up to 35 attend, and I'm sure that we would have that regularly with a building. Last Sunday, it was around 40 degrees when we met for services in the park, and we had a few visitors who stayed for a few minutes before finding somewhere to get warm. I'm content to meet in the park as long as the Lord wants us to, but it sure would be a blessing if we could pray our way into this building.
There are three things that you can do to help:
- Pray. That's most important.
- Hire me. I support our ministry through my graphics, website, and small business consulting business. Call me if I can be a help to you, your business, or your church. (360) 300-7635 is my cell.
- Give if the Lord wants you to. Here is a link to our giving page on our church website: https://giving.gatbc.org. There is a drop-down for the building purchase.
Thank you for your prayerful consideration!
In Christ's Care,
Jared & Krysta Watkins
Enoch, Ezra, Ezekiel & EdWord