Dear Friends of Almacén,
We hope you are doing well. We wanted to give you an update about Almacén Church today. After much prayer and deliberation, Amanda and I, along with our Board of Elders, have made the difficult decision to close the church in San Diego. In the last few months, we have seen the hand of God move in our family, our church and our community at Almacén. But we have also sensed his direction leading us to slow down and prioritize our physical health.
In the last year, a variety of respiratory issues in our family has led doctors to recommend different surgeries and procedures for each of us (tonsillectomies for our daughters, septum and sinus correction for Amanda, endoscopic tympanic reconstruction and eustachian tube dilation for myself, along with immunotherapy for all four of us). Doctors believe the reason why all of us have been constantly sick with ENT issues at the same time is the relatively recent discovery of abundant black mold in our home caused by a combination of rain filtrations after a couple years of unusually heavy rainstorms in the area and poor weatherproofing in our condo building. Fortunately, the developer has agreed to do all the work necessary to correct the problem in the building, but that also means construction work happening at the same time that we are taking turns with treatment and recovery throughout the next 4-6 months.
In the midst of all of this, we could not find a sustainable way to transfer the load of what a young church needs in this season over to the leadership team in order for us to schedule the necessary times off to take care of ourselves and each other. God has been faithful to surround us with amazing and gifted leaders who became family to us, but at the end of the day, we did not deem it healthy for a small amount of volunteers to take on a church that was still in its adolescent stage and had not yet reached financial stability, which led us to the decision of no longer gathering.
Although Almacén no longer meets for services, we are committed to continue to provide support to those still in transition. In the last couple weeks since we stopped gathering, we have gathered some of our leaders on Sunday mornings to either make breakfast together and watch the Mannahouse online service, or to visit a local church service in town. We and our team have also been working on reorganizing the storage of our equipment and getting inventory ready to sell.
In all of this, we want you to know that your contributions have made a tremendous impact, and we are deeply grateful for your support throughout the years. In the last three years:
We launched a church in the middle of a pandemic in one of the toughest inner city neighborhoods of a region with a long history of hostile church splits and moral failures.
We gathered people who needed to heal from past church hurts to gain a new perspective on their ministry gifts and calling.
We gained the trust of local nonprofit organizations that had not worked alongside a Christian church before.
We did pre-launch, Christmas, Easter and Mothers Day outreaches with our team that impacted the community in creative ways.
We worked in after-school programs to be able to serve unchurched families in our community more closely.
We offered PBC Prime and PBC Access classes to our team for a year.
We connected with pastors and church leaders that felt like they were doing ministry alone.
We even did pop-up gatherings in Tijuana and taught Prime at a private high school in Spanish.
Your generosity has touched many lives in the San Diego area and beyond, and we cannot thank you enough for your dedication to this ministry. Since the Almacén giving portal is no longer active, we will be sending out 2024 giving statements in the coming weeks. If you are wondering the best way to still offer financial support to recover costs as we close this chapter, giving towards the Mannahouse Global Vision fund (specifying “Almacén” in the notes) is the best option. Mannahouse has been our sponsor church since the beginning and we continue to believe in sowing forward into new church plants and missionaries like it was once sown into ours.
Our plan is to continue to serve God in the Tijuana-San Diego area working outside the church (Amanda in the counseling field and myself in education), remaining under Mannahouse Global's continual pastoral and relational covering over us as a family. Your continued love and encouragement mean the world to us as we navigate this transition, plug into community, and discover new ways to serve and inspire.
We thank you for your generosity, faith, serving, and dedication to Almacén. The impact of your support will be felt for years to come, and we are grateful for your partnership in this ministry.
May God bless you abundantly for your kindness and faithfulness.
With sincere appreciation,
Carlos and Amanda Campa