Construction workers laid down their faith one brick at a time.

Conversation and laughter were barely audible over the rumble of fork lifts carrying bricks around the site.

A machine mixing mortar ground into action, and the thump of nails being hammered into dry wall echoed through the skeleton of Wiggins Road Baptist Church. After two weeks of construction, the concrete foundation and two-by-fours were starting to look like a house of God.

But it was the stairs that excited Linda Perry, a member of the church planning board.

“It’s like a dream coming true all around us,” Perry said, practically skipping down the stairs two at a time. “When they put the stairs in I knew that it was really going to happen. Our church was being built.”

The dream of the “promised land,” according to Perry, started when Bill and Marion Smith donated five acres of land on Wiggins Road to their church, Gospel Baptist on N.C. 801. The congregation needed a larger facility and saw the land as an ideal opportunity. The old church was only 3,300 square feet and housed nearly 90 members. They quickly formed a planning committee and established the Challenge to Build Fund.

“We established a three-year plan in order to raise money to start the process of building our new church,” said Gene Dellinger, a planning board member. “We just hoped and prayed that in three years we would be able to start to realize our dream.”

The fund reached $87,000 in only two years. Donations came from church members, neighbors and friends. In some cases, perfect strangers would anonymously leave donations in the church’s mailbox.

“We were receiving money from people who aren’t even affiliated with the church and that we haven’t even met,” Dellinger said. “We would make a trip to the mailbox and there would be another check for $50, $100 and even $500.”

What makes the new church such an amazing grace, said Perry, is not so much that it’s being built. It’s who’s building it.

Volunteer groups from as far away as Alabama and as close as Statesville traveled to Mooresville to work on the Wiggins Road site. Carpenters, electricians and construction workers donated labor and tools to help make the congregation’s dream a reality.

“We applied to the Carpenter’s For Christ for help with building our church, and God saw fit for them to choose us as their summer project,” Perry said. “After they agreed to come, the phone calls from other volunteer groups just started pouring in.”

Members of Carpenter’s For Christ, a Christian group based in Anniston, Ala., spent a week in Mooresville and erected the frame. Each member of the group pays $135 to cover his expenses of the trip. The church in turn is required to provide sleeping facilities and to have all the materials on site for the crew.

“The congregation had to have the foundation already in place, and they needed to have a place for our workers to stay,” said Fred Gant, Carpenter’s For Christ project coordinator. “We do a lot of work very quickly so we need to have as many of the supplies on hand and ready to go as possible.”

Volunteers from the group slept at the National Guard Armory, and the construction materials were in ample supply.

“The Mooresville group was more prepared than any group we have ever worked with, and we were impressed by their dedication and willingness to jump in and help,” Gant said. “We have already had four semi-promises from church members to join us next summer for whatever project we undertake.”

That, however, was only the first week.

By week two, the door and window frames were in place. Some electrical wiring and plumbing was installed, and a new group of volunteers was working.

Twenty-three people from Ridgecrest Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa, Ala., voluntarily hung installation and dry wall.

“Our group takes their own personal vacation time and pays their own traveling expenses to come and do this work for God,” said Eddie Larry, Ridgecrest Baptist project coordinator. “They are a small church that is really growing fast, and they will continue to be in our prayers long after our work here is done.”

By week three, the Wiggins Road site was beginning to look like a church.

Bricklayers from local companies like Gates Construction and Piedmont Block spent their Saturdays working on the church exterior. While some volunteers had an affiliation with the church, others, like F.G. Smith from Johnson Concrete, just wanted to make a contribution.

“It doesn’t ever hurt to help people when they need it,” Smith said. “And even though I am Lutheran, it doesn’t hurt to help the Baptists.”

While the masons laid brick, 35 members of the third volunteer group from Alabama, Dora First Baptist, hung dry walland did finishing work like installing cabinets. Like the first two groups, Dora’s workers donated their labor and paid their traveling expenses.

“It’s unreal to see all of these people donating their time and money to help us build our church,” Dellinger said. “I feel that it’s been a real blessing not only to work with all of these people but to get to know them as well.”

The church has not spent any money on labor yet, and Dellinger estimates the congregation will spend less than $200,000 for a project that would usually cost close to $900,000. If progress on the church continues at the same pace and donations continue to come it, Dellinger said church members may finish the church without owing any money.

“This is phase one of our dream, and once we pay it off, then we can embark on phase two,” Dellinger said. “Eventually, this will be the education and administration building, and we will add a sanctuary.”

For now, though, Perry just can’t get over the stairs.

“God had a plan for us, and this makes it real,” Perry said, sitting on the bottom step. “It is the most amazing and wonderful thing I have ever been part of.”

While the new facility won’t be ready for services for quite some time, the congregation has already changed names to make the move more final.