Author: Admin

Praise God for the many men and ladies who worked and cooked at our pre-construction work party on March 28th and April 4th. Our NEW BUILDING is closer than ever because we have made significant progress on our pre-construction projects.
Here is a brief update on them:

• The drywall for our patio is now complete.
• The brown coat of stucco for our neighbor’s wall is complete (for terms and conditions of our NEW BUILDING.
• The sheds and soda/candy machines were moved to provide a play area once we begin the demo of the basketball area, and construction of our NEW BUILDING.
• The new girls’ dorm that they will move into once we begin the construction of our NEW BUILDING is underway.
• The new patio on the corner that we will be using for Sunday school space during the construction of our NEW BUILDING had the concrete poured, stamping finished, footing completed, and fence constructed.
• Richard Lazo has a meeting scheduled with the engineers in Atlanta to help find our MEP (construction) drawings. When he is out there he will meet with Bro. Shumpert to begin planning to get more volunteer labor. It also looks like Bro. Shumpert can get us our new carpet rolls at a 50% discount.
• As we think of the preliminary preparations and actual construction of our NEW BUILDING, we are so grateful that the Lord is working in a mighty way through our building campaign. There have been so many testimonies of the Lord working and providing thorough our church family. Many, many people will be able to give even more than they ever anticipated because they had that little faith as a grain of mustard seed.

As the banquet is less the three weeks away, I encourage you to pray and ask the Lord to continue working through each member in our church. Ask the Lord to do a special, supernatural work in your life personally in regard to giving at least $1,000 on the night of the banquet, and at least $20 weekly. The Lord has already provided this for many. To all of us, please pray that this banquet would be a tool in your life to stretch your faith and that you would give for our NEW BUILDING what the Lord wants you to.

Our building preparation is coming along great! We are doing our best to save the Lord’s money in every way possible Richard Lazo is doing a great job negotiating prices with many different companies that will provide material and in some cases, labor.

• Tal Neumann helped the church purchase a Bobcat. This will save us thousands in rental fees and when we are done with it, we can turn around and sell it.
• Richard Lazo had a great meeting with the company AMS. They informed us that they will charge 1/2 the price they offered a year ago.
• Richard Lazo met with the fire alarm company in Los Angeles that Charlie Zalzos works for. His company will give us a large discount and allow us to use our men to work with them.
• We also have received a new P.A. Audio/Visual proposal that is projected to save us tens of thousands of dollars in our sound design.

We are making significant progress with our demo preparations.

• We had a meeting with the city’s historic preservation officer who confirmed that we are on track to getting the demo permits by the end of April.
• On Saturday Tal Neumann and Kevin Castanon started the demo of the amphitheater, and also removed the light poles from the basketball court.
• Our first official workday will be on Saturday, March 28, in preparation to demo the houses and level the basketball court/play area.
• We need as many men as possible to come and work, and ladies to cook as well.

Please be in prayer for our pre-construction projects, building, and our May 1st Executing Together Banquet. Pray the Lord will do a work in your life and provide at least $1,000 for you to give on banquet night. For some this may be a struggle, but for others, this may not take much faith. If you know that this amount won’t stretch your faith, ask the Lord to show you an amount that will cause you to depend on Him. He wants us to show we need him each step of the way.

On Monday, February 9, Richard Lazo had a great meeting with the city’s historic preservation officer, Jan Ostashay. She outlined in detail what will be necessary in order for us to obtain demolition permits for the parsonage. We have gathered these notes and are working at full speed to expedite this list as much is possible.

We have successfully opened our very own electrical wholesale account at Walter Electric. They have extended to us the same savings agreement that they have in place for Habitat for Humanity. This agreement will help us to save tens of thousands of dollars in electrical material on our project. As a result of Walter Electrical’s business agreement, we have been successful with finding additional material wholesale managers that are willing to mirror this same agreement. We have found that now is a great time to establish and firm up these agreements because of how slow the construction industry is.

Donna Rallonza has saved us much money in helping us create and produce a construction management and staging plan. This important information is required for us to get permits for our new building.

Our structural steel contact, Fred Nour, has helped save us much money on the design and engineering of our new deck that we will be adding to the back of the church.

Church Development Company is well on its way to completing our construction drawings and documents. They are right on track to deliver this information to us as promised.

A big THANK YOU is extended to all those who, even through these difficult times, have stayed faithful in their monthly building commitments. Matthew 25:21 says, “…Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things…” Thank you for being faithful stewards of what the Lord has entrusted you with.

Our demo preparations are going well. We just completed our city required asbestos test and are moving closer and closer to actually tearing the houses down. We also obtained much needed storage and Sunday school space by renting the house on the corner of 33rd and Magnolia. By renting this house, we not only gain storage and Sunday school space, but more spiritual dominion here in the Wrigley area.

Our pre-construction projects are coming along very well. We can still use many more willing men who can come and help complete the remaining projects, and willing ladies who can cook for our pre-construction workers. If you would like to help with the pre-construction projects, please contact Nathan Ros (562) 424-7714 ext. 301. If you would like to help cook meals for these men, please speak with Miss Jessica Meyers.

We are so excited that the city has approved our building project! The extensive bidding process has now begun, and the demo preparations for our two corner houses are now being made. Kevin Castanon, a faithful man in our church, has the skills to oversee the demoing of the asphalt, concrete, and two houses. He also has the ability to have our property graded and prepared for the foundation. Kevin not only has the skills, but is willing to oversee the entire project. What a great asset to our church it is to have men like Kevin who use their God-given abilities for his church. Big thanks to Kevin and the team of men that will help him.

On Tuesday, January 27, Pastor and Richard Lazo had a very successful meeting with the city planning department. They discussed the conditions of approval and the time-line for our permits. The planner let us know that because things at the city are a bit slow, we will be able to obtain our demo permits (for the two houses on the corner, the amphitheater, basketball court, and children’s play area) and grading permits much sooner than we ever thought possible. They also expressed to Pastor that we would be able to get our construction documents approved much, much earlier than we thought. WE ARE CLOSER TO BUILDING THAN EVER BEFORE! Please remember to be in prayer for our building staff as they seek God’s wisdom through this preliminary building process.

Now more than ever it is important that we keep our building commitments. Due to the current state of the lending market, we are re-applying for our loan. Our lenders are viewing our building commitments right now. The more building fund money our lender sees come in, the better interest rate and terms we will have for our loan. Please continue to be faithful in your tithes, offerings and building commitments.

Please continue to be in prayer for our building. God’s hand of favor throughout this building process is more important than anything else.