Sheldon, Iowa — Bethel North, that’s what Bethel Reformed Church Pastor Dave Van Kley and his staff are calling an office building that Bethel moved their office staff into this week.
Van Kley talks about the new office facility.
Pastor Dave says his staff had been sharing office space with Love INC before moving into the new building.
Bethel Reformed has been without a permanent home since fire heavily damaged their church building in late September last year. In March of this year, the decision was made to not repair the old church building, but to construct a new building instead. Van Kley says they are making progress toward that end.
He says this is just a beginning, and there are still many details to be worked out.
Van Kley says the Bethel Church family has been traveling a long road since the fire some 14 months ago.
On a September, 2016 Sunday afternoon, Sheldon firefighters were called to Bethel Church to the report of smoke in the building. In the days that followed the blaze, Bethel church officials said the fire began on the third floor of the education wing of the church, which is located at the corner of 7th Steet and 6th Avenue. Fire fighters contained the blaze quickly, but the church sustained quite a bit of water and smoke damage, in addition to the damage caused by the flames.
After deciding not to repair the building, Bethel announced this past summer that they would build a new church structure across the street south of the current church building, on property that Bethel owns, and had formerly been the location of the old Sheldon Middle School.
