We Have a New Church Building!

In the short 18 months since we arrived we've watched our church organization grow from a branch to a ward to being so big that we had to relocate to a larger villa to accommodate all the members.  After searching for the right building, (it was a home being built as a "spec" home by a local contractor), making the appropriate changes, and finally moving everything across and off the island, we are finally settling into the new villa.  Today was the first day of meetings in the new church.  It was exciting to be able to feel the roominess of the place but to also realize how many people were in attendance.  It was a huge congregation.

In order to help many of the members get to the church and home again there is a bus that leaves from a central part of the island in the morning, delivering people to the church and then returning after the 3 hour meeting block.  Taxi's are hard to find once people get off the island and can be quite expensive.  Since so many members depend on taxi's for transport, the bus was packed full.  

The villa is beautiful, brand new, and there is room for every class to have it's own room and for everyone to fit into the chapel for sacrament meeting services.

Yesterday, the Primary had the first party in the place.  We kicked off the new theme for 2008 with a cinnamon roll breakfast, games and a craft for the kids.

It's been a long, busy week for Brad trying to coordinate the move of everything and manage the final touches on the stand and pulpit and arranging for caretakers to move into the building.  Hopefully, things will slow down a little now.