Birch Tree at the bank

Pastor Eric and Gil the banker

So today we met with Gil at the Bank of Albuquerque to set up the bank account for BTF.

Gil is a spanish speaking Jehovah's Witness, we found this out after speaking to him for some time. We had a great discussion which included the heresy of Arius of Alexandria prior to the council of Nicea in AD 325 where he and his followers were thrown out of the church. We discussed the council of Chalcedon in AD 451 which defined the person of Jesus the Christ, I also informed Gil of how Charles Taze Russell who founded the Jehovah's Witnesses took the heresy of Arius and made it into what is now the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society aka Jehovah's Witnesses.

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It just so happened that we had extra copies of our doctrinal statement and so we gave Gil a copy and pray that he reads it and that the Holy Spirit will illuminate his mind. It was exciting to give a witness together even to our banker!

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But as far as BTF goes, Kolan and I spent the day together and we had a wonderful and productive time. The bank account is all set.

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Our rules for banking include two person integrity on all checks written. As Senior Pastor I can sign solely on a check if needed but it will be the exception rather than the rule. Each check requires a signature from a member of the Board of Directors and an Elder of BTF.

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After leaving the bank, we drove around unsuccessfully phone book in hand searching for a bookkeeping firm to keep our books. We want to ensure financial integrity from the outset so we are setting up an "outside" bookkeeping firm.

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After visiting several locations and calling several others, I mentioned to Kolan, "I wish we could just use Aleida"

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Aleida Benevides is a great Christian, a friend of ours from back in our Texas days and was a Youth intern under my Pastoral leadership in TX. She has been studying bookkeeping and accounting and is just about finishing up her studies. She married Alex Benevides also a Christian and friend from TX. He is in the Navy, and is stationed in the NE United States.

Anyhow, Kolan called Alex and left a message on his phone for Aleida to give us a call.

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Interestingly enough, Aleida checked his message as he had accidently left his phone at home. She called us back straight away and said something to the effect of:

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"It is an amazing blessing that you called me! You aren't going to believe this, but just last week, Alex and I were discussing what I was going to be doing after graduating from school and we both prayed and felt that I really should stay at home with our two children. But we could really use a little extra income so we were praying that God would somehow provide, and then you call! Bookkeeping for BTF is something that I can do from my home and still bless my family. Praise God!"

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How exciting is that????

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Anyhow, that is what we are heading towards now, doing our bookkeeping through our Christian sister Aleida that is out of town. God is awesome in how He provides!

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In addition to all of that, we worked on ideas for the website together and came up with some great ideas.

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Also I spoke with my Christian mentor Mr. Wes Dennison out of Kent, WA who reviewed our doctrinal statements and other BTF statements. He wrote back to me in an email that he was really blessed by what he read and that he was impressed by the thouroughness of what he read although he thought I was a bit wordy. ((~smiles~))

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He also suggested that we cover a few other issues, those living in sin, divorce and homosexuality. We will take that under prayerful advisement.

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Other than that, I've been diligently working on my exposition of 2nd Timothy which will be the first series that I teach at BTF when that time comes. God has been blessing me in my studies.

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Please continue to lift us up in your prayers!

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Pastor Eric