By Sharon Wong
Our Christian life began in 1980 when my husband and I were baptized and became East Toronto Chinese Baptist Church members. We were then called to be members of a church plant to eventually form the Chinese Baptist Church in Brampton. First Baptist Church generously allowed us to use their building before we could raise money to build our church. We prayed a lot to God to provide us with a site and funds to build our church. We signed an offer to purchase land in 1986 and our church members gave generously towards the Building Fund as we started plans to build the church.
Brampton Chinese Baptist Church received mortgage loans from CBOQ and Baptist institutions about 35 years ago, when no banks would help us. With God’s help and the generosity of our congregation, we were able to pay off the mortgage. What we didn’t know at that time was that many CBOQ churches and individuals helped us by investing in the Certificate Loan program to support church mortgages, while earning annual interest. Thank you!
How can you pay it forward and build God’s kingdom by helping churches in need? We received help and are now in the position to give help. We wanted to return the blessing. Once our church had some extra funds to invest, we chose to invest back into CBOQ’s Certificate Loan program. Many of our churches and church plants don’t qualify for bank mortgages or loans when they need repairs, wheelchair lifts, renovations or more space. As a member of the Finance Oversight Committee, I help the committee review the mortgage requests within our family of churches.
During these times of market volatility, investors are looking for sound and safe financial investments such as GICs and Certificate Loans. The Finance Oversight Committee keeps up to date on interest rates for the 1–5-year Certificate Loans, increasing rates each time after the bank of Canada announcements. This ensures that we are remaining competitive in an environment where rate changes are occurring frequently.
Will you invest in helping to build and further the kingdom of God through our family of churches? What better way to be a good steward of God’s blessings by giving back to Him and enjoying good interest rates at the same time?
