When the adults of Liberty Baptist Church decided their growing youth population needed more room to worship and have fun, they probably didn't plan on having a project touched by the Lord.

But Pastor Keith Warren says that's just what happened with the new Strasburg, Virgina church building.

"It started right away. On a Sunday night, the whole church voted to expand and build more room for our young people," Warren says. "The very next morning, I got an unexpected fax from Allied Steel with just the kind of building we needed. That's just the way God moves, I guess."

From that fax, the church leadership sprung into gear getting the project up and running in Spring 2003.

"We called Charlie Kowalski at Allied, and he was wonderful to work with," Warren says.

Pastor Warren drew up plans for the new facility himself, and Allied provided detailed instructions on how to realize his vision. The originally planned 50- by 110-foot building grew to 50 by 119 feet when they decided to attach the new structure to an older building on the property.

"We had to deal with a lot of red tape with zoning boards and the fire marshal," Warren says. "We even had to go before the committee with a detailed sketch drawn to scale. Luckily, we had one of our members draw it up."

After all approvals were received and deposits paid, the building was delivered on time in March of 2004, ready to erect that summer.

But first, they had to lay a foundation for the building, and here is another way Warren says the Lord had a hand in helping the project. A 31-year-old church member had died of a brain tumor the prior fall. In his honor, the man's employer, a local quarry, donated 680 tons of rock for the foundation. The company had just one request.

"The quarry wanted to make sure we put up a plaque in the new building to honor him," Warren says.

Construction professional Eddie Poff had this to say about erecting the multi-purpose structure: "It was quite a project! We put in about 200 man-hours, because we had to add six inches of insulation from bottom to top. We spent another 150 hours on the soffits, to tie in with the old building. The whole thing took 15 workdays."

The multi-purpose building is used by the entire congregation, although the growing youth groups of the church are the primary beneficiaries. The facility contains a stage, gymnasium, a working kitchen, restrooms, and a second-floor recreation room for ping pong, pool and foosball.

"After a lot of work, and with a lot of help from Allied, Eddie Poff and our congregation, we've got this building looking just like we want it too," Warren said. "The kids love it!"