Alexandra Elim, founded in 1981, has always been a strongly Pentecostal church with a mission of “transformed lives, transforming culture” and has recently completed the purchase of a property to establish their church, positioning it for greater community influence in years to come. Christian Savings is delighted to play a part in this exciting journey.
Back in 2010, the small congregation took the leap to purchase a building. At the time, the site included three parcels of land and a building. The initial purchase involved buying the building and one of the parcels of land, with the other two parcels being leased. This structure made the purchase achievable for a small church congregation. Securing the property ownership was made possible through the commitment, dedication, love, and passion the church members have for growing God’s kingdom. It was not a decision to take lightly, as the funding was raised by members of the church uniting to commit to a commercial cleaning contract. For over four years, 363 nights of the year, Alexandra Elim church members gathered together and cleaned the local supermarket, New World, to pay off the mortgage of the newly purchase church property.
The second parcel of land was purchased a few years later through church members’ generous giving, and most recently the final parcel of land was secured with the help of Christian Savings.
The congregation in Alexandra first heard about Christian Savings when Elim Church of NZ became a shareholder in 2017. ‘When it came time to purchase this particular piece of land, the first option we thought of was Christian Savings and it was really good for us,’ says Pastor Aaron More.
‘When you’re dealing with a large amount of paper work, it’s usually going to be a process going back and forth dozens of times providing more documents, clarifying things, but effectively it came back straight away,and that was really amazing for us when you’re trying to negotiate a property deal. Christian Savings being so proactive in providing information, answering questions and processing the loan really smoothly, actually helped reduce our blood pressure a fair bit, otherwise it could have been very stressful if that had turned into a long process to get that confirmed.’
On behalf of the combined churches in Alexandra, Elim heads up a Light Party, one of the town’s biggest outreaches. Each year, 1,000 people attend (20% of the town’s population). The church also partners with Alexandra healing rooms, to offer prayer and healing for the sick in their local community house and has a strong mission partnership with Vanuatu. ‘We found the interest rate was great, so whilst we had a loose enquiry with our existing bank, with which we already had a mortgage, it became pretty clear straightaway that Christian Savings was going to be the best option. ‘
