Lottery Winner Uses Money to Buy Church

They once had to worship in rented buildings and living rooms. On Sunday, the Simi Valley congregation filed into their own church, complete with a blue neon cross outside.

For Lydia Neufeld, it was the fulfillment of a promise--a promise she made during hard times and one that she kept after winning the state lottery last February.

In 1968, at age 20, Lydia Duran Neufeld was a high school dropout, a widow and the mother of six children. “I was just 14 when my first baby was born,” she said in an interview.

She eventually came to work at a tiny church where the Rev. Jorge Gallindo was pastor. She recalls seeing Gallindo use his own money to help the church pay its bills. The congregation finally had to give up its building because it couldn’t pay the rent.

Neufeld decided then, she said, that if she ever came into money she would buy a church.

After she won $17.1 million in the lottery, she remembered her pledge and thought of Gallindo’s New Pact of God Church, a mostly Latino congregation that had been meeting at a member’s home in Lake View Terrace.

“I just know what kind of a wonderful pastor he is and how faithful he is,” Neufeld said.

She and her husband of two years, Dave Neufeld, bought the former Temple Ner Tamid on Appleton Drive in Simi Valley for about $875,000. They financed the purchase through a Simi Valley bank, Neufeld said, and services started Sept. 30.

Gloria Avalos of Lake View Terrace, whose mother has provided her living room for services, said Sunday that she doesn’t mind the 30-mile drive to her church’s new home. “We believe this is the church God gave us,” Avalos said. “We were praying for this church.”

Rosa Torres of Sylmar, who brought her five children to the service Sunday, said many churches are closer to her home, but none are like the New Pact of God Church. “We thank God and Sister Lydia for this church,” Torres said.

About 25 congregants attended the service Sunday in the well-lit, green-carpeted former synagogue. The wooden pews seat about 200 people, and Lydia Neufeld said she and Gallindo hope to hire another minister to conduct services in English and attract new members. Lydia Neufeld plans to help develop an outreach program to help young people, particularly problem children.

The Neufelds are working on other good deeds. They are seeking permits from the city of Simi Valley to develop low-cost housing for senior citizens, the couple said.

They also have splurged a little, buying themselves two new luxury cars, purchasing a home for her parents and giving each of their children some cash, Lydia Neufeld said.

“We plan to start traveling a little--maybe next year,” she said. “But we wanted to get this done first.”

Lydia Neufeld said that, 22 years ago, after her first husband was shot in neighborhood violence in the Venice area of Los Angeles, she never dreamed that she would not only be wealthy but able to help so many people.

“I feel richly blessed,” she said. “I feel overwhelmed and grateful that I have my family unity. Now, we want to do outreach for others.”

Neufeld said she chose the blue neon cross erected outside the church. “I just wanted a light to shine from there,” she said.