News Villalba Construction Complete

December 9th, 2009

December 9, 2009 was an historic day in the life of the Villalba FWB Church. Jhon (Pastor and President of the Church Council), Felician (head of construction and member of the church), Jeff (founder of the church), and Carlos (architect) met to sign the final papers and to pay the final bills to the builder and architect for the construction project. Jeff and Susan began this work in 1984. The church purchased land in 1989. Because of local political problems, the church was forced to take local city officials to court in 1992. On this day, over 20 years after purchasing the land, a long-time dream became reality.

The church has invested approximately 700,000 Euros in this project ($1 million US). Contributions from outside donors reached approximately $200,000. The bank has appraised the property at 2.6 million Euros ($3.8 million US). But much more important than the financial value is the Kingdom value. This is the only free standing Evangelical church building on the Northwestern side of the Province of Madrid, and will impact Spanish society positively for Evangelical Christianity. (Most Evangelical churches in Spain are in small storefront buildings.) The church is poised for outreach and growth.

The building has three floors, with 545 square meters of space (5,866 square feet). It includes a 100 square meter meeting room (1,076 square feet) with an overflow balcony of 40 square meters (430 square feet), classroom space, a kitchen and eating area, an apartment for the pastor, recreational area outside, and front and rear parking. The architectural design allows for open spaces and multipurpose usage. The church leadership and congregation is very pleased with the outcome and the excellent quality of the construction.

Members of the local church, along with Jeff and Susan, are thankful to the Lord for His faithfulness through the years, and for the opportunity to live to see this moment. The Villalba congregation is working to clean and prepare the new building, and will begin meeting there December 20, 2009.

Jeff Turnbough, Madrid

Pictures:

1. Jhon, Felician, Jeff, Carlos --signing final documents
2. Felician (Romanian), Jhon (Colombian), Jeff (USA), Carlos (Spaniard)
3. Front of new building
4. Main entrance
5. View of main entrance from the back of the property
6. Back view of the building
7. Rear entrance
8. Rear parking (for pastor's residence)
9. Reverse side of building
10. Main meeting room (with balcony, seats 200)
11. New chairs
12. Yolanda & Marisol cleaning
13. Jhon organizing the cleaning crew
14. Church members jumping for joy as they place the new chairs
15. Susan, Rocio, Marisol enjoying the moment
16. Anita cleaning the construction dust off interior doors