Traveling Troop

Willie Eichmann is not the average minimum-wage worker.

The 77-year-old project manager for the construction of the new Church at Creston-Lutheran has been responsible for getting all the permits, receiving bids and writing up contracts for subcontractors, arranging for supply deliveries and maintaining the inventory, overseeing the labor and then putting in his own time on site as a builder.

And Eichmann only takes his pay to meet state workers compensation requirements. He believes what he is doing in his retirement years is more meaningful than just construction work.

“We feel that when we come into a church, we’ve not only built a building but are bringing the congregation together as a unit,” Eichmann said.

As the head of the Laborers for Christ crew working on the church, located on four acres on Montana 35 south of Creston, Eichmann has been in the Flathead Valley since April and expects to be around for another month or so.

Laborers for Christ is a national ministry based in St. Louis, Mo., a program of the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran Church. Though only Missouri Synod-affiliated congregations are eligible for their help, anyone who wants to serve can join a team.

On the Church at Creston project, the Laborers for Christ group, gathered from throughout the United States, consists of 11 men and their wives. The women do their share of work, making sure the work crew is fed and taking care of other support duties.

The couples live in a makeshift community of recreational vehicles out back of the church, an unobstructed view of the Swan Range greeting them every day. Flower pots ring the “yards” created by sections of artificial turf. A community room, where the workers gather for meals and fellowship time, sits a few dozen yards away.

Though they can be gone for months at a time, most of the workers have homes in other states. Marlow and Linda Schaefer have made Laborers for Christ their permanent lifestyle and their RV a full-time home. They sold their house in Wichita five years ago, and now have a bedroom set aside for them at one of their daughter’s homes.

“We loved to travel and we wanted to serve the Lord,” Marlow said of their decision to make the leap.

“The trailer has about the same square footage of our first apartment,” Linda said. “It’s all you really need for two people.”

The Schaefers, as is the case with many of the Laborers for Christ workers, don’t have a background in construction. Marlow worked in a military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kan.; Eichmann was in auto repair.

Ken Block, who is from Seward, Neb., is on his eighth project with Laborers for Christ. He taught Greek, Latin and theology at a Lutheran college and is a retired pastor.

For his wife, Marlene, it was a big step to take on the Laborers for Christ lifestyle.

“You’re leaving your home congregation and your community and your friends, and come together with a group you haven’t ever met to live and work together,” she said.

It’s worked out well on this project, she said, especially in getting to know the Church at Creston congregation.

“It’s a very alive group, a very supportive group,” she said.

The Church at Creston started out as a preaching station of Trinity Lutheran Church in Kalispell in 2003 under the leadership of the Rev. Darold Reiner, a longtime pastor at Trinity. Reiner retired from that church in 2004 and now devotes his time to the Creston congregation.

The church has been meeting in the Creston Grange Hall across from Creston School. With the addition of the Laborers for Christ group, 165 people packed the room a few weeks ago, giving the church its biggest Sunday service crowd ever. The new 12,600-foot facility will feature a sanctuary for 250.

The grange has been a crowded place for a while now. There are just two big rooms, upstairs and downstairs, and the Sunday school meets in one room with dividers separating the classes.

“It has helped visually but not audibly,” Reiner said.

Reiner said the Laborers for Christ route was chosen because he was aware of the success other congregations have had in using their services.

“I just thought it would be the most reasonable way to do this financially,” he said. “They’re doing a wonderful job.”

The congregation also is pitching in regularly, with up to two dozen extra helpers showing up on Saturdays.

Reiner said with the new building, the church will have a renewed emphasis.

“Our main emphasis as a congregation will be family, and helping people with family issues — marriages, bringing up children, family difficulties. We did a demographic study a few years ago when we first planted the church, and it showed us that’s the No. 1 need of people in the area,” he said. “They want help with family.”

Reporter Heidi Gaiser may be reached at 758-4431 or by e-mail at hgaiser@dailyinterlake.com.