Ten of Westwood's 100 members were on the construction team. Pastor and Mrs. Les Giles of Raleigh's Ephesus Church and six of that church's members were on the team as well as nine members of First Baptist Church, Morehead City, where the Allards served for more than 12 years before going to Westwood. Other team members came from Georgia and Texas.

The two-acre construction site was once a night club and dance hall. But all that changed when Dona Lucia came to know Christ as her Savior. As Lucia explained, "My place of business was dedicated to the pleasures of the flesh, and in our ignorance we called it 'a corner of heaven.'" But deep within Lucia's heart there was an emptiness and a longing for something more meaningful in life, she said. One night she happened to pass by a small congregation of Baptists who had gathered for worship in the Eusebio community. She was so impressed by the singing that she entered the small rented building and curiously observed what was going on.

The singing and the message from the lay pastor touched her heart. When the invitation was extended at the close of the sermon, Lucia said she knew that she needed Jesus in her life. Convicted of her sins, she surrendered her life to Christ.

As a new Christian, Dona Lucia said she no longer had a desire to keep the dance hall and night club. Although she owned the night club business, her mother owned the property. Lucia closed down the night club and trusted God to provide her with a means of making a living.

She owned a store building next to her mother's house but had no tenant. In prayer, she asked God to send someone to rent her building so that she could have an income that would provide for her family. Within days a bottled gas company was knocking on her door about her vacant building. A contract was signed and her livelihood secured.

Lucia's conversion led to the conversion of her mother as well as other members of the family. When Dona Lucia and her mother, Dona Clarise, learned that missionary Jerold Golston was looking for a new site to build a Baptist Church in Eusebio, they discussed the matter, and Clarise offered the abandoned dance hall property for about $45,000 in U.S. currency. With funds from the Alvorada Church in Fortaleza -- the mother church -- along with special gifts from state-side churches, the property was purchased.

In May, foundation work was begun on Eusebio Church in preparation for the coming of the Westwood team. In eight and one-half days the team of 14 women and 21 men raised the walls of the sanctuary and educational building; lengthened the supporting columns; installed windows; set the trusses; moved 10,000 brick and 20,000 ceiling tile; mixed sand, rock and mortar; poured the sanctuary floor; poured the foundation for the sanctuary; installed a 30-foot iron gate entrance to the church; poured a sidewalk one block in length; conducted a three-day Vacation Bible School for 75 children and a two-day workshop on health and hygiene for neighborhood mothers; and held a dedication service for more than 240 people who had gathered for the event.

As the team neared its final days of work, Lucia and Clarise came to express their gratitude. During a lunch break, Lucia shared her personal testimony. In vivid detail she told how Christ had come into her life and into the lives of her family members. Looking at the construction site and giving thanks for the work accomplished on the new church for Eusebio she said, "this place is now truly 'A corner of heaven.'"

(Editor's note: Information in this article was submitted by Charles Allard, pastor of Westwood Baptist Church in Cary, N.C.)