Orchard Hill Church begins work on new home

    GRUNDY CENTER — Ten years ago, a group of about 20 Grundy County families had a vision for the future. Sunday that vision took a huge step forward as Orchard Hill Church broke ground on it’s new Grundy Center worship center at the corner of M Avenue and Highway 14.
    The half hour ceremony featured prayers for the project as well as gospel music and the laying of stones as a memorial to the Lord. It concluded with ceremonial first shovels of dirt, first by the children of the church and then by project leaders.
    “You all know so well that this has been a journey we’ve been on for a long time,” Church Business Manager Pat Oehler told those gathered. “Orchard Hill Church has been (in Grundy Center) for 10 years and almost from the beginning we were looking forward to a day like this and the days that are to come.”
    Orchard Hill Church originally opened in Cedar Falls in 1962 and held its first Grundy Center service on Jan. 9, 2005 at the Center Theatre in downtown Grundy Center. The church has grown from its 20 or so Grundy Center families at the beginning to more than 200 families that have contributed to the new building.
    “Today was just really the fulfillment of God’s promise that if we’re faithful he’ll be there for us,” Dr. Stefanie Rohler, a member of the church leadership board who has been in charge of fund raising for the project, said. “We really have this mission to bring Jesus to next generations. It’s something that’s in the DNA of our church.”
    Rohler admitted that seeing the project transition from a vision to a reality has been a little difficult.
    “To be honest, until I walked out here today it hadn’t really sunk into me,” she said. “It just kind of kept being this dream on paper, but now we see the lines out here.”
 
For more of this story see the July 30 Grundy Register.