A permanent "altar of worship" for the Swiss Riviera region, in the spirit of the Tabernacle of David; cf. 1 Chronicles 15 and 16.
A place to meet with the God of Israel, like the Tabernacle of Moses, also called the "tent of meeting" in Exodus 33.
A house of prayer and intercession.
A place where reconciliation and unity amongst Christians can be strengthened through the Jewish roots of our faith and where the creation of the "new man" mentioned in Ephesians 2:14-16 can become a reality.
In early May 2004 Alain had a dream one night: bulldozers were feverishly digging up the southern part of the plot of land occupied by the family home, which, until then, had been a vineyard planted by his maternal grand-parents. In this way God demonstrated His desire to see a house built for Him on that spot!
In the summer of 2009 Alain discovered that the Christian Embassy in Jerusalem had chosen « The Tabernacle of David » as the theme for its annual Feast of Sukkot. Having felt called to participate, it was there that we understood that we should build our own sukkah (or hut).We returned from Jerusalem with a clear vision of the work that God wanted us to do and filled with joy like that of Obed-Edom, to whose safekeeping David entrusted the ark of the covenant (cf. II Samuel 6,10-12).
It is important to realise that the project was only started after three years of inactivity. A different project had already been launched in 2005 which was abruptly brought to an end at Easter 2007 - too big, too expensive and not in line with God's will!
We finally began the construction of the worship pavilion in the spring of 2011. Just two months later we miraculously found a Christian architect available and who felt, above all, called by God to accomplish this new project with us.
Obtaining planning permission took quite some time; as you can imagine, introducing a semi-public place of worship in a residential area without any religious buildings was not going to be an easy task! God opened doors for us: after several adjustments and corrections, the application met with no opposition and we finally received planning permission on January 10th 2011. Another miracle!
During the preparatory stages, as well as during the building work, we did not meet with a single obstacle and everything proceeded smoothly and uneventfully. The majority of the subcontractors hired by our architect (Peter Wyss of Steffisburg) gave full satisfaction and the schedule of works was upheld, so that the inauguration could take place at the Feast of Sukkot 2011. It was celebrated on October 15th 2011, in a spirit of thanksgiving, along with all the artisans and donors who had contributed to the completion of the project.
The pavilion was built by the Gfeller Holzbau family business from Worb; it is prefabricated, made of wood and may be dismantled ; it has an available floor space of 66 m² and a 24 m² guest annexe. It is termed a meeting hall by the council and is equipped with 6 parking spaces situated around the building.
