But in the early hours of Tuesday morning... they were dealt a significant setback...
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"Somebody breaks in and steals our dump trailer, which is worth a bit of money and fills it up with plywood, a whole mess of wood. Comes back and steals some more two-by-sixes," said Lead Pastor, Al Schaap.
He said the suspects took roughly $20,000 worth of equipment.
Video shows the suspects break in, steal the trailer, and start loading up construction materials. Church leaders said they've invested about three thousand dollars into extra security cameras since then.
It's just another added cost to the two-million-dollar project for the church.
Andrew Alkema has attended Gateway Community Church for over 20 years. His family is helping with the construction, and he says the community inspired the project.
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"It's mostly volunteers out here, and, you know, it took a little over seven years for the planning and the funding to get this in place to be able to do it," said Alkema.
With the loss of materials, Alkema says they didn't just steal from the church but the hundreds of people they serve in the community.
"They're likely going to have to reduce what they were going to make available for kids. And that's just, that's brutal. Like, what do you do about that? This building is literally for kids," said Alkema.
Church leaders encourage anyone who has information on the whereabouts of their material to contact Merced detectives.