By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer
RHINEHART – A group of Kingdom Builders kicked off their summer by helping members of Oak Grove Baptist Church in Rhinehart complete their family life center.
A team of 55 people from 26 Louisiana Baptist churches in early June installed framing, sheetrock, wiring and plumbing inside the 4,800-square-foot facility. Kingdom Builders President Randy Ray said his organization saved Oak Grove Baptist around $50,000 in labor costs.
A Kingdom Builders volunteer uses a saw to cut through wood used to help complete the family life center at Oak Grove Baptist Church in Rhinehart. This is the second project the ministry has completed this year.
“Our heart and our focus is working with mission churches and smaller churches that can’t typically afford to have a building built,” said Ray, pastor of St. Rest Baptist Church in Dubach. “The greatest joy of Kingdom Builders first of all is great because we get to work with these guys and gals. We have formed a bond and are a picture of the real church – a community of believers coming together to help out fellow Christians with a need.”
This is the second project Kingdom Builders has completed this year. In February, volunteers helped finish the Breadcrumb Benevolence Ministry building in Jonesville. Their final undertaking for 2018 is to help finish a worship center for the Church Street of God in Oak Grove this September, pending final approval from the Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal.
According to its website, Kingdom Builders is a construction mission group established in 1998. The ministry’s first official action was to build a church the following year in Mandaree, North Dakota.
Last year, Kingdom Builders helped finish the worship center, fellowship hall and education space at Point of Life Community Church, the first Baptist church in Plaucheville; and Zenoria Baptist Church, whose previous facility was destroyed by a 2016 flood.
“It’s always a joy when we are called back after the project is completed and we see the church has grown,” Ray said. “What a joy it is to know that we are building the kingdom in many different ways and are providing a tool for this church to expand their ministry in different areas to reach this community.”
For more information on volunteering with Kingdom Builders, call Ray at 318.312.0884, or e-mail rray1.ch@gmail.com. The organization can be found online at Kingdombuildersforthelord.org.
