Church's Gift of Its Building is a Moving Experience

For pastor Ruby Bell, the new building is a way to fulfill her dream.

"I want to feed the hungry and I want to try to pick some people off the street that don't have anyplace to go," Bell said. "This won't just stop at this church because I want to get some buildings going."

Bell is moving her church into the former home of the Black Jack Free Will Baptist Church, which is giving away its old building.

Church leaders would like to move into the donated building as quickly as possible, but there is one more job left to be done.

They still have to pick up and move the building about eight miles away to the town of Dudley. The trip would cost the small church about 10,000 dollars.

Bell wants to move it to Dudley because many of her members live there. They will move out of this old building which sustained rain damage after the agreement.

"Sometimes we have funerals, sometimes we have weddings, and we have to renovate somewhere else because we're so small," said church member Teresa Baker. "I feel like this church is very important to my pastor, and if it's important to her, it's important to me."

For more than 20 years, Bell's congregation has met in any place it could fit. Now, thanks to the growth of another church, her members will have a permanent place to call their own.

Bell's church hopes to have the building moved within the next three months. After they move in, they expect the congregation to grow.