Inner-city VBS raises funds for suburban church plant

SAN ANTONIO?It was last July when Pastor Edward Beltran of Genesis Hot Wells Baptist Church, a south San Antonio church plant of the Bluebonnet Baptist Association (BBA) and the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, convinced his church to earmark 2.5 percent of their undesignated receipts to an account designated for local missions through BBA.

“This is an amazing story of God’s providence and his perfect timing, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose,” Beltran said, quoting from Romans 8:28.

Last month Genesis Hot Wells celebrated their two-year anniversary. In the process of searching for a local ministry to designate the 2.5 percent toward, Beltran ran across the blog of Pastor Zak White, who was in the process of planting Revolution Church in the northeast San Antonio suburb of Schertz.

“It was the latter part of this past spring that I heard of Zak White and the possibility of Genesis joining other partners in an effort to support the calling and vision of this new church plant,” Beltran said. “By the grace of God we began along with other partners to contribute financially to support Revolution Church’s vision.”

It was toward the end of July when Genesis Hot Wells conducted their Vacation Bible School (VBS). The children were encouraged by the leaders to contribute to missions. Revolution Church was the recipient of the gifts collected from the VBS children, plus the church’s 2.5 percent of undesignated receipted given through the local Baptist association.

With many other expenses that came with the planting of Revolution Church, it still lacked the funding for the design of a logo?an important facet of distinguishing itself in a media-saturated culture. “We didn’t have the money for a logo design and in our area, a slick logo is pretty important,” White said, “so we came up with a logo design contest.”

Waiting on God to provide, White posted on his blog: “We have some absolutely incredible and dedicated churches from our area partnering with us as we launch Revolution Church. A few days ago I got a phone call that the kiddos from the Genesis Church Vacation Bible School had raised $171 to go towards our logo (which we had no money for.) INCREDIBLE! And yes, I said the VBS kiddos are the ones who raised the money. Crazy! It FLOORED me! I cried after I got off of the phone.”

It was only after their conversation that Beltran sent White some pictures of the kids who gave the money, which left White more blown away than he was initially. “No doubt, God at Work!” he wrote. “We could all learn a lot from the children in our lives if we would just stop and watch them. I know God has taught me more through Couper (my 2-year-old son) than just about anybody on this Earth.”

“The kids raised $170 of the $250 we needed. But realize this … these kids are on the southside of San Antonio. They are FAR FROM being kids with money to spare for something like this. As far as I’m concerned, they raised $170,000,” White wrote.

Revolution Church is now in the launch phase. They held their first preview service on Oct. 4.

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