On November 30, 2010, I had the privilege of having a meeting with a known Christian business-owner in Chattanooga, TN. This man, who supports many mission projects around the world, was interested in hearing about the project proposal (visit www.brazilforchrist.com/prayer.php).
I presented the project to him, and he called me back the very next day on December 1, 2010 to tell me that he would match, dollar for dollar, every donation that I receive for this project by December 31, 2010. His only condition was that I would have to receive the funds by December 31, 2010 in order for him to match the donation. Future pledges for the project would not count.
PLEASE CONSIDER PARTNERING WITH US TO REACH OUR GOAL. WE KNOW THIS IS SUDDEN, AND WE KNOW THERE IS NOT MUCH TIME, BUT GOD OPENED THIS DOOR AND I AM ASKING YOU TO STEP THROUGH THIS DOOR WITH ME.
WE MUST RECEIVE ALL CHECKS BY DECEMBER 31, 2010 IN ORDER TO RECEIVE MATCHING FUNDS FOR THOSE DONATIONS. PLEASE DESIGNATE YOUR OFFERING TO JONATHAN MATHEWS - BRAZIL PROJECT.
Make Checks Payable to:
BWMOM, Inc.
P.O. Box 3303
Chattanooga, TN 37404
If you have any questions please call me at 615.351.4964.
PRAY
December 02, 2010
November 05, 2010
Partnership Packet
If you are interested in receiving a partnership packet please let me know and I will send you one in the mail. We have a bunch of material put together that will help you gain a great understanding of what we are doing and why. Plus you recieve important information about how you can personlly participate in helping us reach our financial goal.
Just email me at jmathews@brazilforchrist.com and give me your mailing address and info., or you can go to http://www.brazilforchrist.com/ and sign-up there.
Just email me at jmathews@brazilforchrist.com and give me your mailing address and info., or you can go to http://www.brazilforchrist.com/ and sign-up there.
Securing Partnerships to Build
Hey, just writing to let you all know that we have been in the U.S. since about September 1 and we will be here through the Spring of 2011. Our goal is simple: we need to raise capital to build the first phase of our building. We finished all of the groundwork this past year: excavation, perimeter walls, etc.. but now we are ready to lay some footers, put some walls up and a roof and we need money to do that. If you are interested in helping with our project just let me know. You can help in many ways - you can contribute financially, you can give of your time and participate in a construction team next summer or the winter of 2011, or you can help with your skills and knowledge (arquitecture, design, etc...). One way or another, we hope you can at least pray that others will fill in the gaps where needed. Remember... we serve an awesome God that is ready to use us wherever and whenever we are willing. We are not awesome but He is and He loves doing great things through not-so-great people!
May 28, 2010
THIS PHASE IS DONE!
Since our last update in March, many of you contributed towards this project and we just want to thank each one of you for your generosity in helping us reach our goal. As you may remember, our goal was to get the property “job site ready” by rebuilding our perimeter walls and finishing any needed excavation work. With your help we were able to bring this phase of our project to completion. It took some time to arrive here but we are “JOB SITE READY”! You can visit our photo gallery via our website www.brazilforchrist.com to see all of the pictures of the property. Now, we are ready to move on to the second phase of development. We are ready to build!
We want to start this next phase of this fundraiser emphasizing that we are just trying to get a simple structure put into place where we can hold meetings. If we start off with the basics, what do we need? Two things we HAVE TO HAVE: 1. Bathrooms and 2. Covered and Enclosed area for meetings. It doesn’t have to be super nice; it just has to keep people in from the weather and a place for people to use the restroom. We do have a master-plan for our project and so what we build will not have to be torn down later on to make room for something else, we will simply modify it and integrate it into any future development.
We are still putting together a list of estimates and studying the cheapest way to build what we need and soon we hope to be able to present all of that to you.
Over the next couple of months we are going to be purchasing basic building materials as funds are available and stock them on the property. We will be mostly buying 6” and 8” blocks, pavers, sand, stone, and some tools. These are durable goods that we can begin purchasing now to be “ahead of the game” later. The main reason we are doing this is to take advantage of the current high in the exchange rate. As many of you know the U.S. Dollar has fluctuated 25% in the last 18 months – it rose 25% and then dropped 25% in that period. Imagine trying to set a budget for a project under those circumstances.
I could save the contributed money and cash it in for building materials IF the exchange rate jumps or I could end up saving the money for a high exchange and it never come around and then I’d be forced to exchange funds at a low rate at a time that I really needed materials. The best plan is buy materials as funds are available and thus getting the “median advantage” of the exchange rate. Within the last month the U.S. Dollar has gone up about 10%, it may gone down tomorrow or it may continue to rise. I don’t know but one thing is for sure, if I buy over time I’ll get the average of the highs and lows.
This is just one example but the principle applies to every single item we have to purchase. I may say we need a certain amount for a project today and that amount may not be enough tomorrow. So, we are asking you to consider giving towards these building materials.
Go to our picture page to see the progress...Web Album
We want to start this next phase of this fundraiser emphasizing that we are just trying to get a simple structure put into place where we can hold meetings. If we start off with the basics, what do we need? Two things we HAVE TO HAVE: 1. Bathrooms and 2. Covered and Enclosed area for meetings. It doesn’t have to be super nice; it just has to keep people in from the weather and a place for people to use the restroom. We do have a master-plan for our project and so what we build will not have to be torn down later on to make room for something else, we will simply modify it and integrate it into any future development.
We are still putting together a list of estimates and studying the cheapest way to build what we need and soon we hope to be able to present all of that to you.
Over the next couple of months we are going to be purchasing basic building materials as funds are available and stock them on the property. We will be mostly buying 6” and 8” blocks, pavers, sand, stone, and some tools. These are durable goods that we can begin purchasing now to be “ahead of the game” later. The main reason we are doing this is to take advantage of the current high in the exchange rate. As many of you know the U.S. Dollar has fluctuated 25% in the last 18 months – it rose 25% and then dropped 25% in that period. Imagine trying to set a budget for a project under those circumstances.
I could save the contributed money and cash it in for building materials IF the exchange rate jumps or I could end up saving the money for a high exchange and it never come around and then I’d be forced to exchange funds at a low rate at a time that I really needed materials. The best plan is buy materials as funds are available and thus getting the “median advantage” of the exchange rate. Within the last month the U.S. Dollar has gone up about 10%, it may gone down tomorrow or it may continue to rise. I don’t know but one thing is for sure, if I buy over time I’ll get the average of the highs and lows.
Example of how the exchange rate affects our budget:
1000 - 8” Cement Block:
One Month Ago $1515 vs. Today $1366
This is just one example but the principle applies to every single item we have to purchase. I may say we need a certain amount for a project today and that amount may not be enough tomorrow. So, we are asking you to consider giving towards these building materials.
Go to our picture page to see the progress...Web Album
Almost Built
A few months ago you helped us reach our financial goal to build some deteriorating perimeter walls on part of our property. As you may remember, our goal was (and is) to get the property “job site ready” and for us that means to secure the property with strong perimeter walls (just what you have to do in Brazil) and finish any needed excavation work (a slight grade is also normal in Sao Paulo’s terrain – grade seen in the second picture).
Well, the wall is being built and at present we have finished 70% of the work on the wall. How big is this wall we’re building? Well, it is roughly 100 meters long x 2.2 meters high. That’s 328 ft. long x 7.2 ft. high or 2,368 sq. ft. of wall. That’s a lot of wall! That’s a lot of 8” block!
We were off on our building cost estimates. We had to put more money into the footer and steel (rebar) than we expected due to the poor soil quality – better to build it right once than to build it wrong and have to do it again!
So, we are asking you to consider giving towards this same project to help us finish off this phase of the work that needs done.
Go to our picture page to see the progress... Web Album
Well, the wall is being built and at present we have finished 70% of the work on the wall. How big is this wall we’re building? Well, it is roughly 100 meters long x 2.2 meters high. That’s 328 ft. long x 7.2 ft. high or 2,368 sq. ft. of wall. That’s a lot of wall! That’s a lot of 8” block!
We were off on our building cost estimates. We had to put more money into the footer and steel (rebar) than we expected due to the poor soil quality – better to build it right once than to build it wrong and have to do it again!
So, we are asking you to consider giving towards this same project to help us finish off this phase of the work that needs done.
Go to our picture page to see the progress... Web Album
January 20, 2010
100% IN
It all came in several weeks ago but we are only now updating this blog. Josh was in Bahia (northern brazil) for the greater part of December and Jonathan was in Bahia during the first two weeks of January.
We thank all of you who contributed so generously towards this phase of our project. We have several bids on the work we need to get down (excavation and construction of perimeter walls) and very soon we will contract the workers for the exectution of this phase of work. As materials are bought and as the work is being done we will post pictures so you can follow the progress.
Once again thank you and please participate in the next phase of our project. We will post information on the next phase as we near that point in the execution timeline.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
Posts
