ELCA NEWS SERVICE May 24, 2004 ELCA Mission Builders Plan Seven Construction Projects for 2004 04-104-FI CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Mission Builders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) plan to build or remodel at seven church sites in as many states this year. Dean Hiner, North Platte, Neb., program director, said 32 builders will be working on five projects this summer but two more workers are needed for a project in Oregon. Mission Builders is a program of the ELCA Division for Outreach. There are currently 97 Mission Builders, including 23 new builders, Hiner said. The other 74 have worked a combined total of 345 projects. Eighteen have worked only one construction project; three have each worked 14 sites. "A total of 716 Mission Builders have been involved in helping 119 congregations since Mission Builders started in 1986," Hiner said. Builders work alongside members of the building congregation and subcontractors. They have also worked on several Lutheran Disaster Response projects following hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters. Mission Builders are Christians with considerable construction skills and other "handy" folks helping congregations, schools and camps of the ELCA build their facilities. Most are retired, but others take an extended vacation with their families, willing to share their skills and faith and to work for minimum wage. Mission Builders is planning construction projects at seven sites in 2004: + Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Daphne, Ala. + Our Savior Lutheran Church, Twin Falls, Idaho + Hawarden American Lutheran Church, Hawarden, Iowa + King of Kings Lutheran Church, New Windsor, N.Y. + St. Paul Lutheran Church, Ontario, Ore. + Lutherhill Camp and Retreat Center, La Grange, Texas + Trinity Lutheran Church, Cumberland, Wis. Hiner noted the tentative nature of construction planning. Weather, local road and sewer construction, and any number of variables may change these plans, he said. Construction at the Alabama and Texas sites is to begin later in the year; the other projects are set to begin this spring. Twenty-one Mission Builders worked on four projects completed in 2003: + Trinity Lutheran Church, Hillsdale, Mich. + El Instituto, ELCA Southwest Texas Synod, (Mision Luterana San Pablo) Weslaco, Texas + Bethesda Lutheran Church, Bayfield, Wis. + Christ Community Lutheran Church, Green Bay, Wis. "With encouragement and financial assistance from the Mission Builders, the Mission Investment Fund has produced a new video, 'Designing Effective Church Buildings,' that is available without charge to any congregation planning a building program any time in the future," Hiner said. "In less than eleven minutes, Mission Investment Fund staff architect Peter Norgren points out the most important things to consider in the designing of a church," he said. The video is available from Mission Builders or the Mission Investment Fund. Web sites of the ELCA Division for Outreach -- http://www.elca.org/do/opportunities.html -- or the Mission Investment Fund -- http://www.elca.org/mif/ -- provide computer versions of the video. The Mission Investment Fund offers investment opportunities to ELCA congregations, their members, and ELCA-affiliated institutions such as colleges, universities and social-service agencies. With the invested monies the Fund makes loans to ELCA mission congregations for purchases of land and construction of initial church units, and to established ELCA congregations for renovating or expanding existing facilities, relocations and purchases of land. Nearly 500 loans are in effect throughout the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. More than one-third of the ELCA's 10,721 congregations, thousands of individual Lutherans and numerous ELCA-affiliated institutions are investors in the Fund. -- -- -- Information about Mission Builders is linked to http://www.elca.org/do/missionbuilders/ on the ELCA Web site. For information contact: John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask] http://www.elca.org/news