By Quinn Lavespere, Message Summer Staff Writer
[img_assist|nid=7486|title=Kingdom Builders|desc=Members of Kingdom Builders for the Lord, a non-profit organization, built a mission house called the Refuge Prayer and Care Assembly for the Refuge Baptist Church of Echo.|link=none|align=right|width=640|height=480]ECHO – A group whose goal is to expand the Lord’s kingdom found a perfectly named church to do so with.
Led by vice president Randy Ray and building coordinator Buddy Willis, Kingdom Builders for the Lord built a mission house called the Refuge Prayer and Care Assembly for the Refuge Baptist Church of Echo in what was a four-day construction effort.
“It took a lot of collaboration and work,” Ray said. “Since it was for the Lord, it was worth it.”
Kingdom Builders for the Lord is a non-profit organizations consisting of more than 200 volunteers.
Over the last several years they have built churches in Oklahoma, South Dakota, Arkansas and numerous projects in Louisiana.
“At Kingdom Builders, we like to take on anything that we feel is a worthy cause,” Ray said. “We feel that God has blessed us in many an effort.”
The building of Refuge’s mission house took place from June 20-23. By using a system of prefabricated Perma-walls and engineered trusses, the group was able to quickly complete the 40 x 60 – 2,400 sq. ft. – building, and on Thursday night, at the last night of revival services, Kingdom Builders for the Lord presented the keys to Refuge Pastor Adam Thornton.
Ray described Kingdom Builders’ typical approach to a project as being three-pronged.
“In addition to building a facility, we also bring in a team that does Bible school and a team that does a revival at night,” the vice president said. “This week, we’ve had 103 volunteers – with 27 churches being represented overall – doing work for us and holding Bible school and the night revival. They also have been cooking meals in a huge cook trailer we have. We do our own meals at no expense to whatever church is involved.”
Both men were pleased to recount God’s blessings of the week’s activities.
“On the first day that we were here, we had a young man saved in the field,” the vice president said. “We’ve also been blessed to have several of the inmates from the local correctional center help us, and in fact, one of those men was saved.
“Even though it’s rained, we’ve managed to remain on schedule, and we’ve had some great services,” Ray continued. “We’re averaging about 35 in vacation Bible school, which is a pretty good ratio. The thing is, we want to come and be a blessing to whoever we’re involved with, and we really enjoy working for the smaller churches that don’t have the resources to do these types of things.”
Willis, affectionally known to those around him as “Brother Buddy,” said it was a blessing to see Refuge prosper despite having only $498 in building funds.
“They stepped out in faith, and God has provided for them,” the building coordinator said. “Churches have given them money and Georgia Barnett has given them money. It just takes faith like that to get something like this going.”
The cost of the building ended up being around $45,000. Because of the generosity of the Georgia Barnett Missions Offering and donations from local churches as well as Kingdom Builders for the Lord, Refuge Baptist Church will be able to move their ministry into the new facility debt-free.
The building coordinator summed up Kingdom Builders’ outlook toward the future just as well.
“We want to be ready, willing, and able to go wherever God asks us for us to go,” Willis said.