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This assembly, known as La Grande Maison, was the fruit of a vision and efforts by [[Bill Wolitarsky]] and his wife Karen. They had come to Québec from California, arriving in 1966, commended by Christians at Believers' Chapel, Dallas, Texas. Two years of secular employment followed during which time the Wolitarskys participated at the Assemblée chrétienne Maranatha in Montréal, making personal visits as follow-up work for two French language Christian radio broadcasts, as well as for the Sermons from Science Pavilion at Man and His World.
In 1969 the Wolitarskys moved north across the Saint Lawrence to Ile Jésus, the island where Laval is located, in order to establish an assembly testimony there. This came as a result of a call, "Come over and help us in Laval", from a man who had recently built his little retirement home there on the North Shore. It proved to be the beginning of a new and exciting movement among Québec francophone assemblies, one which would endure for better than three decades.
<div style="text-align: start;">Meetings began with Bill and Karen and two other families from the Maranatha assembly along with two additional persons. Within two years, nine believers formed the nucleus of a little assembly gathering on Sunday evenings in the Wolitarsky basement. In another year, the assembly had more than doubled and a large, twelve-room residence had been put at their disposal for the development of the work by Mr. A. R. Lite, an elder at Ebenezer Gospel Chapel. By the end of 1974, the little nucleus had grown to at least one hundred and the indoor swimming pool had seen numerous baptisms. In fact, the group baptized 146 in its first five years of phenomenal growth.</div>
