Lakes Lutheran Church makes plans for expansion

Multipurpose room will be latest addition

About 10 years ago, the four dusty acres where The Lakes Lutheran Church now sits sported a sign to announce the new building. But money was tight, and the sign remained the only thing on the lot.

"That sign was up for so long, for so many years, that it got to be a joke among the members," said Pastor Kurt Sortland. "We'd say 'this is coming soon' or 'that is coming soon.' But we finally got our church built."

The Lakes Lutheran Church, 8200 W. Sahara Ave., moved into its present building about eight years ago. Now the church has another "coming soon" project.

In October, it will break ground for an expansion that will add a much-needed multipurpose room.

The giant room, measuring 90 feet by 30 feet, will have built-in movable walls to create three sections. The center section will have a higher ceiling to allow for half-court basketball.

The $600,00 addition was designed by Leo Borns and will be capable of seating approximately 200 people for a meal, 300 for plays and special productions. It will added to the existing building near the church's kitchen facilities.

The project will also expand the administrative wing, add classrooms and expand the restrooms. The builder is Bentar Inc.

The church has about 700 members. Among its many community projects is a mission to Mexico to build homes for needy families.

In a multiple-church mission, about 60 church members from various Las Vegas churches participated in a mission to build houses for poor families near Tijuana, Mexico. Besides The Lakes Lutheran, participants were from Holy Spirit, Christ the Servant and Good Samaritan. They went on a six-day trip that began July 27.

The Lakes Lutheran group drove in rented 15-passenger vans to La Presa, just outside Tijuana. The mission was part of an ongoing building program directed by Amor Ministries (www.amor ministries.org) of San Diego.

"Traveling into Mexico can create anxiety for some people," Sortland said. "When you go to Canada, it's like crossing into another state. Mexico isn't like that. It's a bumpy, dusty trip and you see dilapidated cars, houses that are patched together with whatever materials were available at the time. You see these people have so little and yet they're happy."

The 60 missionaries were divided into teams and built four houses.

The family that received the house Pastor Sortland's team constructed included Jesus, a man in his late-50s struggling to keep together his extended family of nine. His wife has Alzheimer's and needs him for 24-hour care. One of the men in the clan had a factory job and earned $60 a week.

Before the missionaries arrived, Jesus graded the site by himself, not an easy job considering the house was built on a slope. Despite the language barrier, Jesus helped out with the building process and often sang and played guitar to entertain the workers.

Sortland's team was hit with unexpected medical problems. The very first day, one woman slipped and broke her ankle. She had to be driven to a San Diego hospital where it was determined she needed surgery. She opted to have it done in Las Vegas, and her family took her home.

Another missionary received a phone call that his wife in Las Vegas was seriously ill. He also left the team to go back.

"We dropped from 16 people to 11," Sortland said. "But one of our members from Christ the Servant was a carpenter and was indispensable."

Another missionary, a Christ the Servant member, was a chef and his meals kept everyone rejuvenated with meals like tri-tip steak and barbecue.

Even after long hours of hard labor, the missionaries got together for a fireside sermon, singing and sharing thoughts about the day's events.

Good Samaritan sent along about 20 quilts to hand out to area residents. There were also small gifts like dolls, food snacks and a soccer ball for the kids in the community.

Before the teams left, Jesus got out his guitar and sang them a song of thanks. Tears rolled down his face as he sang and soon the missionaries were crying, too.

"It cost our church $6,500 to participate," Sortland said. "We could have just sent the money, but we wanted our young people to experience it. That's what this trip was all about, opening the eyes of people so they see what's important in life, what we really need to be happy."


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