Published on Saturday, August 16, 2008
By JOE VARGO and CINDY SANTOS
MECCA - Help is on the way.
Almost two years after the roof nearly collapsed at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Mecca, a replacement structure is going up that will serve as its new home for the foreseeable future.
Workers toiling from motorized scaffolding are hustling to finish the interior of the octagon-shaped interim church.
Already the exterior of the structure -- which consists of a Kevlar-like material pulled taut over an aluminum-ribbed skeleton -- is largely finished.
Pastor Eliseo Lucas said he expects the sturdy replacement to provide more comfort than the large tent currently used as the church, a makeshift arrangement at best where worshippers shiver in the winter and sweat in the summer.
Lucas, 41, says he knows getting the money to complete the interim church and building a permanent replacement will prove a daunting task for a community among California's poorest.
