by Wilmer and Linda Paulus

At the end of August, we drove a large truck to Florida full of tools and supplies. Our purpose was to begin work on the caretaker’s house at the Sun City camp so that it can be improved for the new pastor and caretaker.
The weekend before we arrived, a group of 25 from the Ft. Myers Hispanic Church came and tore out all the flooring so the mobile home was ready to be transformed. What a  blessing it was to have the home emptied!

After a few days of planning and gathering additional supplies, many volunteers came to help. Steve Miller, a world missions’ board member, is now pastoring in St. Petersburg, FL;  He brought several helpers from his church. Michael Smalley, pastor of the Seffner church, also offered his assistance. They fixed rotting floorboards and then put 5/8 inch plywood over the entire floor (except for one bedroom). Jacob Miller, also pastoring in St. Petersburg, came to “supervise” and brought waters for the men!  It was VERY HOT!  We thank them for their hard day of work.

Conference President Jacob Martin and his wife Rhoda were also in Florida at this time planning for the Florida district conference; we appreciated their help as well.

The Sun City Camp Church will now be used throughout the year, when it usually sits empty, as a hispanic church. Maurilio Ambrocio, the new pastor of this church, will also serve as the caretaker. We are very excited about this development.

In fact, that is another reason why we went to Florida:  September 3rd was the first service held there!  There were five or six Hispanic churches who were represented at that service to show their support to this new endeavor, totaling 210 people.  It was similar to a commissioning service for the pastor who felt God wanted him to come.  

Pastor Rigoberto, from the Ft. Myers’ Hispanic Church expressed his commitment to encourage the pastor and keep the grounds of the camp in good shape.  Heri Santiago, the director of the Hispanic churches in Florida, was in attendance and did a lot of translating when necessary.  We were happy to have Sidney Grant and John Dykes in attendance representing HIM (Hope International Mission) who are the ones who helped us find a Hispanic pastor.

It was a delight to meet Maurilio and Merely Ambrocio with their five children! Maurilio has his own business, so he will be able to supplement his income until the church has enough members to support him. 

Due to Hurricane Irma, we left sooner than we had planned; there is still much work to be done before the Ambrocios can move on campus. Maurilio has some jobs in Ft. Myers where they live now so it will be a little while before services actually start in Sun City.

It would be great if a team could go down to work on the house. Bro. Smalley is planning to go and do some of the work. We will be going the end of December, first of January and hope to get a lot done before Sun City Camp starts as we are the cooks for that.

Keep this venture in your prayers and ask that God’s Will will be done in all aspects. If the Lord lays it on your hearts to help financially, you can give online or send donations by mail (information below) and specify that it is for Sun City Hispanic Church.

HELP GOD’S WORK GO FORWARD

Checks payable to “GMC World Missions” may be sent to our treasurer:

​Andrew Cooley
109 Evergreen Lane
​Spring Mills, PA 16875