Inscribed above the arch at the entrance to Redeemer Lutheran Church in Lebanon, Conn., is “Glory to God in the Highest” in German. The congregation reiterates the message, but now in a much larger facility across the street from the original church.

Committed to the project, congregation members pledged money and time to construct the building, and were assisted by an LCEF loan, a fellow Lutheran who managed the project, and Laborers For Christ member Bernie Gueldner. Despite setbacks, the project was completed for nearly half the original budget thanks to this help and many prayers.

Laborers For Christ recently helped the Christ the King Lutheran Church, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, congregation solve its problem with leaks by raising its flat roof. In doing so, the team also helped raised community awareness.

“Every day for four or five months, our community, the vendors, and trades people saw thousands of hours put in by our church volunteers and the Laborers,” said Russ Schumacher, congregation building chairman. “It made them wonder what causes people to put in such a great amount of time [to the construction project]. It was a good witness to our community.”

Adding fellowship and classroom space to Zion Lutheran Church, Hampton, Neb., involved moving a former two-room, 40-ton schoolhouse across the church parking lot. Laborers For Christ, working for the congregation, gutted the 1920s-era building and prepared for what had to be one of the most unusual moves ever made in the town.

The congregation had most recently used the old schoolhouse for Sunday school classes and as a fellowship hall. But the building’s distance from the church and poor accessibility had become a problem. Laborers remodeled the relocated building as an addition that will include four Sunday school classrooms, a conference room, and much improved fellowship space. “It was pretty amazing to see a building that for some 70 years had been in that one spot move,” said Rev. Loren Cooper, Zion’s pastor.

Remodeling a former Kansas City, Mo., plastics factory into a multi-purpose community center is a big job, but the congregation of Jesus El Buen Pastor Lutheran Church has Laborers For Christ, NAILS, and an LCEF loan helping it.

Rev. David Loza, pastor, appreciates that Laborers For Christ and the young people of NAILS are on the job. “They are helping us to keep costs to a minimum and working very hard,” said Loza, who expects the multi-purpose center to be complete by September. In addition to worship services, Loza plans for the center to offer citizenship classes, a food pantry, and a recreational place with activities for young people.

Laborers For Christ and other volunteers worked this fall on construction projects, along with helping to clean up and make repairs, at Camp Okoboji, an LCMS camp located on a wooded peninsula on West Lake Okoboji in Milford, Iowa. Laborers worked on five construction projects including a new prayer chapel; a handicapped friendly, year-round dorm cabin which sleeps 20; a family cabin; a year-round fish-cleaning facility; and a large addition to the maintenance building.