By By Lee Weyhrich
After years of waiting Brooks Memorial Baptist Church is about to open its new education wing.
"We're building an 18,000 square foot building, education and fellowship hall for children and youth," Pastor Michael Grindle. "It's probably the first addition to the church since its been over here."
A new building has been in the works for years.
"When I was a kid I used to play with the golden shovels that we used to break the ground," Youth Minister Mitchell Hughes said. "It's been in our thoughts and prayers for years. I guess we're finally making it a reality. I'm 24 years old and we (my brother and I) have been playing with those shovels since I was six."
The church was able to begin construction to the building last year before the hurricane.
"We started on it in August and the storm came and we had it all framed up and Ivan put it on its side," Grindle said. "Before Ivan came we had people write scripture on the foundation. You are literally standing on the word of God. There is scripture all through the building."
The new building is going to fill a lot of needs for the church.
"The building is mainly going to be for use as an educational wing, there will be Sunday schools and a large fellowship hall," Hughes said. "There are bride and groom rooms but mainly it's going to be educational."
The building may also allow the church to expand the sanctuary.
"It's in our plan to possibly extend that sanctuary room, there are a couple of classrooms on the side and there has been talk about tearing out those walls and making the sanctuary wider," Hughes said.
With the new Sunday school classes, the church will also be able to make some of the existing, and often cramped, classrooms bigger.
"I'm excited about it and I think everybody else is excited about it," Hughes said.
The brickwork was begun last week and the congregation hopes to be in the building by mid-summer.
"We hope to be in it by the middle of July," Grindle said. "We're planning on having a big celebration and having an event where the community can come by."
Grindle believes the new construction will open up a lot of doors for the church.
"It's just an attribute to the people here and to the glory of the lord," Grindle said. "It will be another extension of our ministry and to the glory of God. It's just a dream becoming a vision and becoming a vision to completion"