In 1999, the Lord impressed on my heart (Pastor Jacobo) the need to get properties for the ministry. At that time, we were still running the ministry in a rental house, a four-bedroom house that used to be our house, the church building, the Children’s Ministry and the office. We found land for the Nuevo Reto building but we did not have the money to purchase it.
The owner wanted the money within a week and I promised to get the money for her. The day came when we had to finalize the deal and we still did not have the $5,200.00. I prayed and said: “Lord, you do not make any mistakes. I did by promising to buy with no money, just give me grace before this lady that she may understand I was walking by faith. I decided to meet with her, take her for lunch and explain her I was giving steps of faith when I promised to purchase the land from her. The problem was, she was not a believer and I felt kind of embarrassed. Four hours before I met with her that day, I friend of mine, another minister who was also in the process of saving some money to buy a property for his own ministry heard of our situation and with no documents to sign, lent me the money with no interests and with six months of grace.
Six months later, the Lord provided the money to pay the property in full. In 2001, we were challenged to start building since the first building team would arrive during the summer to help with the construction. We launched on a project of $150,000.00, by faith. No savings, no pledges, only the promise of God who gave us the assurance of his provision. All we dared was to provide a house that will dignify the street kids. A place to be called “home”.
An architect friend warned us: “Do not start building unless you have 60% of the budget”. We did start in June 2001 with only 7% of the budget. Five years later, in November 2006, by the grace of God and after many “special provisions from the Lord” and his people; the Lord brought to completion the dream of having a beautiful building worth $200,000.00 with enough room for all the programs we were in later years going to be running at Nuevo Reto.
In April 2006, the Lord blessed us with a second property for Nuevo Reto to build the second phase, in this house we have our training for life projects including our carpentry and sewing projects.
Nuevo Reto 