‘What would you do for God if money were not the object?’

Martin Halberg remembers a season early in his Christian life when he and his wife were buried in debt and feared the future.

But rather than caving into their fear, they chose to pray and completely surrender their situation to God. 

“My wife and I laid all our bills on the floor and cried over them and said, ‘God, you took us. You got this. You got our bills with us,’” he said. 

It wasn’t overnight or by a miraculous windfall, but the bills got paid.

“We had to work on it, but I believe it was God’s faithfulness that kept us in the right direction,” Martin said. “Provision always comes, and He is provision.”

Seeing how God answered their prayers in that difficult season has stuck with Martin and has shaped the way he approaches prayer and encourages others in their faith walks. 

Years later, in 2003, he joined his brother-in-law, Jerry Willis, who felt called to start a ministry. They were challenged by their mentor, Billy Godwin, with a question: 

“What would you do for God if money were not the object?”

Jerry said he wanted to minister to people who couldn’t raise the money for their own visions.

From that, A Time to Build was born. 

Inspired by the story in 2 Kings 3 where God, through the prophet Elisha, instructed the people to dig ditches in the valley and promised to fill them with water, the ministry started gathering building projects — churches in India, schools in Peru, an orphanage in Africa, a soup kitchen in Central America.

What they didn’t have was a single dollar.

Martin said, instead, they relied on prayer for God’s provision that He would fill the holes they were willing to dig.

And He did.

“God’s just been faithful to bring people into the ministry and to give to the ministry,” Martin said.

The ministry’s reliance on God’s provision extends to its fundraising efforts, too. Jerry has always insisted that people should feel called by God to give.

“He said, ‘I don’t want to steal the blessing from another ministry that needs the money, too,’” Martin said. “I think that’s really one of the key pieces of this journey that we’ve been on.”

Led by faith and prayer, they built a school in India in a predominantly Muslim and Hindu area — starting with no money in the bank.

Contributions started coming in, and they raised the $600,000 needed to complete the project. Today, the school is self-sufficient and has more than 750 students enrolled. Its English teachers are Christians who share the gospel when they teach.

Martin also recalled the story of a Christian pastor in Mumbai, India, who wanted to build a boys’ home to serve children in the area. He thought the project would cost $75,000, which A Time to Build helped raise. Before construction began, though, they got an updated estimate that nearly tripled the cost.

Instead of abandoning the vision, the pastor decided to push forward and break ground. As construction progressed, the church prayed. The remaining money started coming in from donations within the community — something that had never been done there before.

“And that’s God,” Martin said. “God just made a provision for that, and it encouraged them that their faith would also work. [The money] didn’t have to come from America; the people in India could actually raise money to do great things.”

A Time to Build is still active today, with its construction focus shifting to digging wells in Africa and India, “providing living water, along with regular water, for the people to enjoy,” Martin said.

Each well costs an average of $4,000 to build, and they’ve built about 10 so far.

Another aspect of the ministry focuses on building people, not things.

Called Imparting His Presence, the team equips and trains pastors and other church leaders to share about the love of Jesus. Martin said he and others have traveled to countries in Africa and South Asia to put on conferences for up to 200 people at a time.

“I think a lot of times the message gets mixed out there — that it’s grace and then something,” he said. “So we’re trying to hone it back in and say, ‘It’s just grace. God has forgiven you. God loves you.’”

This is the new covenant of grace, and the vision of Grace & Purpose, that he carries with him.

Martin’s most recent mission trip took him to India and Sri Lanka in October 2025, a trip financially supported and saturated in prayer by Grace & Purpose Church. 

While there, he met a pastor in Odisha (formerly Orissa), an eastern state in India. The pastor wanted to grow the ministry in his city, but he felt oppression from people keeping him from reaching people for the gospel.

Martin encouraged him to pray not from fear, but from faith.

“I said, ‘What you need to do is you need to start thanking God, and you need to start acting like God is already answering the prayers that we’ve prayed,’” he said, “‘because you know He wants to take the city. You know He wants the gospel to be preached. God opens up the doors. God opens up our relationships with people so we can see this mission accomplished.’”

Martin said this interaction is a reminder that God’s provision is more than money — it comes in many different ways — and we find it through what God has promised in his Word and through prayer. Everything has already been provided in Christ.

“We’re not trying to make God do stuff,” he said. “We’re trying to make happen the things that God wants to do.”