Thrivent Work Project
Saturday, April 25, 2008

     Zion Lutheran Church began in 1905 with a lot of excitement. A Lutheran pastor would be coming regularly from Thorsby to serve the new congregation. Silverhill was booming with Swedes. Everything looked so very good. That unnamed hurricane that destroyed so much of Baldwin County in 1906 ended that hope, and it would not be until 1913 that the little congregation would begin working on getting enough funds to build a church across the street from the first Silverhill School. Late in 1914 the foundational work for the present church was initiated, then in 1915 more building, and finally in 1916 the church was completed. We're not sure how much electricity the building had initially, but we do know that Fred Langenbach was updating wiring in the the church a half century ago. And we also know that the kitchen with its running water dates to the early 1960s. So, it is not until 2009 that electricity and water get provided outside the church building.

    The Thrivent Project began in earnest on April 25. The project will come together in bits in pieces over the next two months. "We even got Pastor Craig, visiting from Montgomery, to put in a hand," Pastor Dave noted. Pastor Benson is currently completing a degree program in Montgomery at the Air University, which is headquartered at Maxwell Air Force Base, a major component of Air Education and Training Command. The Air University is the Air Force s center for professional military education.

On one side of Zion's church sign, visiting Reserve Chaplain Craig Benson gives Vera Avera a hand with some plantings that surround the church sign.
Meanwhile on the other side of that church sign (l to r) Pete Midgarden, Steve Vasko, and Ralph Utter have established a trench to lay in a power supply for Christmas and Easter light displays. Ralph has fed wire through the conduit that is being fabricated for the trench.
Steve Vasko, Ralph Utter, and Pete Midgarden (l to r) have removed sidewalk stones to allow the trench by the sign to connect with the trench leading from under the church.


     Little pieces of church history get obscured with time. But those little pieces come together in renovation projects. There has never been an outdoor plug-in for all those Christmas lights decorating the entrance to the church for many years, and certainly not a ground-fault receptacle. And there have been flowers here and there around the church over the years, but no water supply for flowers. We kind of take those things for granted, so isn't it about time to bring historic Zion up to speed?

On the east side of Zion Charlie Canning is working on an outside plumbing connection to supply gardening water to the side of the church and to the area up by Vasko, Utter, and Midgarden.
Up in front of the church, Vera Avera begins to lay out plants for the raised flower bed. Some plants have to be uprooted, some taken up and replanted elsewhere, and some introduced new to the bed.
Cindi Johnson, on her way to the Saturday morning Women's Bible Study, stops for a moment to discuss the bedding of those new plants. Vera explains a detailed project.


     Enter Thrivent, a fraternal Lutheran organization, best known in greater Baldwin County for its work in support of Habitat for Humanity. But Thrivent is a help to Lutheran churches as well, and Zion's President Charles Canning was notified in early April that some limited funding for Zion was approved for a multi-part work project involving renovation and updating. Funds to assist in bell tower renovation, repair of stained glass windows, landscaping, provision of a water line for yard care, and supplies for an outside power receptacle would come from Thrivent.

So, Vera is working away, but meantime, Steve Vasko and Pete Midgarden are siting that conduit in that trench. No, it only looks like "boys on one side and girls on the other." The crew really worked well together.
Back on the east side of the church, Milt Luoma (l) and Charlie Canning are doing some trenching of their own for a water line in the area of the flower bed in front of the church's Fellowship Hall. The new white water line will shortly be interred in the trench. Another part of that water line will extend toward the front of the church.
Charlie Canning and Milt Luoma (l to r) also fabricated an access to a water valve from the main by customizing a piece of six inch pipe for the purpose. Who says you can't have a shut-off valve in the ground? The two were working on the right of the picture, close in to the church. The planting project and electrical outlet work were taking place in the rear to the left of this picture. The second part of the water line project will be behind Milt's right shoulder in front of that Chevy truck.


     The whole project would take several months, but it began in earnest the last weekend of April with an ambitious crew. The water line is in and the ground-fault receptacle is in. Flowers are planted, and Zion is on its way to complete another phase of renovation to its historic facility.

Things move along. The conduit in the front of the church is now in. Pastor Craig moves dirt to fill in the trench. Pastor Dave will work on getting the side walk back together in another minute or two.
Milt Luoma (l) and Charlie Canning have completed the trench and now are completing the gluing of plastic water pipe and fittings going to the front of the Fellowship Hall. A second component of this water line will extend next to the church for another 30 feet south.
Meanwhile, back by that sign and flower bed, Steve Vasko finds the conduit now covered with dirt and begins to assemble the outlet, ground-fault and all.


Click each photo to enlarge.

Inside the church in the closet in that bell tower, the line for the new outside outlet to the south, is ready to be connected to a 20 Amp line. Pete Midgarden prepares to connect the line. Yes, a little cramped, but Pete can get into small places, as he just demonstrated crawling under the church to bring that trenched conduit to the right point to connect to the church's junction box!
On the same side as the new water line, an additional external outlet box is being sited by the side door. Steve Vasko lays out the plan and the mounting spot for that new outlet. The waterline extension will continue past Steve on his right for another ten feet.
The job is not over yet, but there comes a time to fill in the trenches and clean up the digs. Milt Luoma (l) "aims a shovel of dirt for Pastor Dave." Yes, they were filling in the ditch for that new water line.


2009 Thrivent Work Project

     Zion President Charles Canning reported in early April that Zion has been approved for a multi-part work project. The project will involve:
  1. REPAIR: INSIDE OF BELL TOWER.

  2. REPAIR: OUTSIDE BELL TOWER.

  3. REPAIR: STAINED GLASS WINDOWS.

  4. INSTALL: WATER LINE TO THE FRONT OF CHURCH.

  5. LANDSCAPE: CHURCH PROPERTY.

  6. INSTALL: NEW VENT FAN IN WOMAN'S REST ROOM.

  7. PAINT: STEPPING STONES.