Our history is one of transition. In March of 1997 a handful of people met for the first time, as Desert Foothills Baptist Church (DFBC), in a newly purchased home on River Road. In August 1997 the members of DFBC called Dan Budgick to be their pastor. DFBC continued to see growth and we were reaching the limits of our facilities.

As a church family we began assessing our property situation by having preliminary architectural work done. We soon realized the River Road property would not be adequate to facilitate our vision. Therefore, in February 1998 we voted to sell the River Road property. Immediately we had a buyer. We began looking for land and the Lord directed us to two connecting 4.4 acre lots on Shannon Road. In July 1998 we voted to purchase the lots that now serve as our present location. We began working on plans for our new church home. We had been praying for wisdom to know exactly how to go about building a building with just a handful of people.

God led us to an organization called True Foundation Builders. TFB is a mission organization that helps churches cut the cost of building by providing volunteer labor and working as the general contractor of the project. In October 1998 we decided to use TFB. Andy and Fran Bowers lead the group. We hired an architect and began completing our plans. We submitted our plan to the county in July 1999. As we waited for building permits we moved out of our River Road property and began meeting at Pusch Ridge Christian Academy.

The county issued our permits to us on May 31, 2000. The next day we received a phone call from the county for US Fish and Wildlife requesting us to stop building due to the pygmy owl situation. We had several meeting with US Fish and Wildlife and came to an agreement on how to deal with the nearby nesting owl family. Part of the agreement was that we would wait until the end of September to begin the building process. At first we were disappointed for the delay but we knew God was in control. Every step of the way had God’s mark on it. What appeared to be a setback actually worked out to be His perfect timing. Andy and the TFB had been delayed in the building project before ours. Finally we began excavating in October 2000. Over the next several months we saw God work in so many marvelous ways truly the stories are endless. The TFB arrived on the site at the end of January 2001. We had couples from Wyoming and Montana along with the Bowers to help us begin construction. Over the next several months we would have retired men from our church family work on the building throughout the week. Others would come out on weekends or on their days off or moms with their children through the week to help build. The ladies of our church family took turns providing hot meals for lunch Monday through Friday. We had other couples that had helped Andy in the past come to town and help. We had a group of ten men, most of which had construction backgrounds, take off time from work and pay their own way to fly out from South Carolina. They helped us for a week by finishing the framing and setting the trusses. We had a couple from North Carolina help us for two weeks to finish the electrical in time for the inspection.

Repeatedly again we saw God supply the necessary personnel to help us, contractors and suppliers that would give us a break. Donations of supplies and finances that came in throughout the project! We have been through some really trying time through the process but I believe they have strengthened our church family in our faith in God and we have bonded together as a church family. We are thankful for what we have learned though the church building project but we are also thankful it is done! We were thrilled that in October of 2001 we received a temporary occupancy permit and had our very first service Sunday, October 14. On December 17 they granted us our final certificate of occupancy. We are excited about what the Lord is going to do. So much of our time over the last couple of years has been focused on the building but now we can focus on what we believe the church is here to do. The people are the church and we have seen the Lord lead a number of our family out of state over the last year. However, now that we are able to focus on reaching out into our community we have seen our church family begin to grow both numerically and spiritually. We believe we have a tremendous responsibility and privilege to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with our community. We exist as a church to glorify God and will use this building to exalt Him through worship. By focusing on the Bible and making it our sole authority for faith and practice. By using God honoring, conservative music. We will use this building to help us introduce our community to the gospel Jesus Christ who is the way the truth and the life. We will use this building to equip and train believers to live the way God would have them to live. We will use this building to deepen relationships with one another. We will use this building to help meet the needs of our church family and our community alike.

We want people to know we are here in the Northwest area of Tucson to help people to take their next step in their spiritual walk.