ELCA Mission Builders project foreman Steve Shank of St. Louis works with Roy Doell of Irving, Texas, to remove wall braces from the addition at Peace Lutheran Church, Burlington, N.D. (inset), which suffered severe flood dam- age in June 2011. The addi- tion will contain a kitchen, Sunday school classrooms, after-school programs and the town’s only food pantry. Doell, a former quality engi- neer for Abbott Labs who has worked with Mission Builders for more than 20 years, says: “It’s a new adventure every project.”
Roy Doell
Carole Shank, the foreman’s wife, pours coffee for Clar- ence Strabel. Carole and other spouses prepare meals and help with some light building.
sometimes at the construction site. On the surface it looks like just a construction program. But the men and women who have participated tend to describe it as a spiritual experience that deepened their faith and built Christian community. Rich and Chris Bryne, Granada Hills, Calif., visited a Mission Builder site at Rushford, Ind., in 2006 and liked what they saw. The next year they helped build a sanctu- ary for Bethany Lutheran Church, Nevis, Minn. In 2011, after working on a welcome center for Lutheran Hills Bible Camp near Morgantown, Ind., they headed to Hel- ena, Mont., to help build Our Redeemer Lutheran Church. Rich Bryne said the people in the congregations he has worked with “don’t know that we get a lot more from them than we give. They give us so much in Christian fel- lowship and love. … I think it just proves that you can’t out-give God.” At 25,000 square feet, the build at Our Redeemer is the
largest in Mission Builders’ history. They broke ground March 13, 2011, and had most of the building enclosed by the end of the summer, with a move-in date sometime this fall. (See a video of the construction at www.youtube. com/watch?v=2drq94vYM6A.)
Most Mission Builder sites are in rural and suburban communities, with few in metropolitan areas. Voss attri- butes this to stricter building and licensing codes and the difficulties of hooking up RVs in most cities. This summer’s Mission Builders projects include:
• Peace Lutheran, Burlington, N.D.—an addition to help the congregation recover from last year’s floods. • Hope Village, Minot, N.D.—flood damage repair. • St. Paul Lutheran Church, Ontario, Ore.—a school. • Flathead Bible Camp, Kallispell, Minn.—new buildings.
of raising the roof
Individuals and congregations interested in work- ing with Mission Builders may con- tact Tom Chase at 800-643-5295. For more information, visit
www.elca.org/ missionbuilders.
October 2012 35
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52