BUILDING GOD'S HOUSE

The sound of hammers pounding overhead, voices shouting out instructions that guided equipment into place and dozens of people armed with tools milled about the grounds.

The construction site at Fruitland Community Church off U.S. 61 just north of the Highway 177 intersection was like any other construction site you see -- except that the crew was strictly volunteer and nearly all were Southern Baptists.

A group of 120 volunteers raised more than a roof over Fruitland Community Church this week when they worked as part of a construction team -- they also raised the spirits of the infant congregation.

Fruitland Community Church began 22 months ago as a Southern Baptist mission meeting in an elementary school gymnasium. The church started when a core group from Lynwood Baptist Church, the mother congregation, determined to plant a new church in northern Cape Girardeau County.

So far they've succeeded. The church has hired a pastor and is in the midst of its first construction project.

The only way the church is doing what it's doing at this stage in its life is because it has been blessed, said the Rev. Mike Parry, pastor.

The land for the church was a gift from Lynwood and members of the Fruitland church pledged to help pay for construction supplies, building costs and furnishing the facility.

The work crew that arrived last Saturday is just the first in a series that will be coming. Eight teams from all around the country are scheduled to come help build the 13,000-square-foot church. But none of the other crews will be as large in number.

Similar volunteer construction teams worked on a church in Commerce, Mo., earlier this month.

When Kim Cavanah walked into worship Sunday at Fruitland and saw the 120 men and women, dressed in white T-shirts imprinted with Chilton Baptist Builders seated in the church, she said, "I just about cried. It was such a blessing."

Knowing that the group took its vacation for the year to come and help build a church is amazing, she said. "There's no expense for us, except the supplies."

The volunteers provide all the tools and labor for their job. They bring a 40-foot trailer filled with the tools they'll need, and most travel together in church vans.

The Chilton Baptist Builders group from Chilton County, Ala., represents 27 churches in that association. However, each year that the group builds a church it recruits more volunteers from those communities. Among the volunteers this trip, they represent five states and 37 different churches.

Charles Wilhite of Concord Baptist Church in Chilton County has been making these construction trips for 15 years. Being part of the construction team is sort of like scratching an itch -- once you start it feels so good you don't stop, he said.

"If you go on this trip you get hooked on it," he said. "It's like a family reunion each year."

Wilhite said the goal is to build a structure and put it under a shingled roof before leaving town. Sometimes the construction is a new church or remodeling a sanctuary or even building more education space.

The group's motto is "God is able," and Wilhite said that's evidenced every trip. "We are just his instruments." God does most of the work and "that's why you can see all these people around here and nobody gets knocked in the head with a two-by-four."

And there are plenty of two-by-fours around. Stacks of lumber were precut almost as soon as the first volunteers arrived on site. Trusses are stacked on the gravel lot waiting for someone to hoist them to the roof.

So much of the wood was cut and ready that the few volunteers who arrived in Fruitland last weekend decided to raise four walls for the multipurpose room.

Despite the threat of storms Wednesday night, the group met for a prayer and worship service at the site, where all that lacked was a roof over the sanctuary area. The members were overwhelmed as Parry asked them to share testimonies about what they were feeling as "the miracle" was going up.

"I've seen God's love through all of this," Cavanah said. "I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like this. God built this church for someone in the community who doesn't even know it yet."

After the testimonies were given, Parry handed out permanent markers and invited everyone to go around and see the rooms, marked with slips of paper in place of doors.

"If you're a nursery volunteer, go to the babies' area," he said. "If you're a fifth- or sixth-grader, go to that area. Just go around. Imagine what this will be like."

Mark and Joni Oberhauser were two of the original 52 members commissioned by Lynwood Baptist Church to help begin FCC two years ago. They both said the thought of soon being able to worship in their own building was amazing.

"It doesn't seem real," Joni Oberhauser said. "We've been waiting and praying on this for a long time, and finally it's here."

Mark Oberhauser said the building is a testament to God's work in the church. "It's amazing how in less than two years we've gone from 50 people meeting in a school to almost 200 people and our own building that's going to be done.

"It just amazes me how quickly this has gone up," he said. "These people gave their time and ability and put in so much hard work despite the long, hot week we had. It's just such a testament to God at work here."

After writing a Bible verse and a prayer on a piece of framework in the children's room, Debbie Sandus said the building proves how incredible it is that God can do so much. "So many people like to put God inside a box," she said. "This building just shows how big he really is."

Amber Marshall was impressed with how quickly the builders did their work. "Monday, there was nothing but concrete and wood," she said. "Four days later, it's an actual building. This is awesome."

Jenny Lamb said the feeling she had being in the building was overwhelming. "Words just can't describe what God has done."

blewis@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 226