REPUBLIC, Mo. — Since 1994, Convoy of Hope has helped over 200 million people around the world. Now, its new global headquarters and training center will allow them to reach even more communities in need of help.

Ethan Forhetz with Convoy tells KOLR10 that this is a monumental accomplishment for the organization.

“We’ve already seen a difference that it’s made with our team building and our staff here in the Springfield area. Just the ability to meet in this space and in many of its conference rooms that we have. No more Zoom calls, or emails or fewer emails, but we get to meet face to face and that really goes a long way in building the team and building the unity,” said Forhetz.

At the opening, guests from all over the world were able to see the new headquarters.

Forhetz says Convoy was able to build the headquarters with all of its new amenities debt-free, thanks to several donors.

Last year, Convoy responded to 75 disasters worldwide and now Forhetz says that Convoy can reach even more people with this expansion.

“This year we are on pace to break that record set just last year. So we are seeing more things around the world that we need to respond to and in this country as well and we are also seeing our ability to respond to more things,” said Forhetz.

Construction for the global headquarters and training center started back in February of last year and a skywalk connects the new building to the distribution center.

The global headquarters and training center is 200,000 square feet and they still have 40,000 square feet left of unfinished space for future expansion.

When you walk into the building there is a coffee shop and a store. Inside the headquarters, there is an auditorium/chapel that seats more than 700 people. They have state of art communication studios as well as video and audio editing suites. And they also have a gym inside of the headquarters for their employees.