Church needs financial assistance

The sanctuary at Trinity Lutheran Church will remain unusable until a $200,000 stabilization project can make the 100-year-old worship room buildingsafe.

Church manager Louise Cassidy said they had been working with engineers and project contractor to revise an initial $400,000 plan that included external concrete buttresses to support the sagging building.

“When we revisited it, we found we could put in additional cables and a steel plate to eliminate the buttresses, which would not have looked good anyway,” she said. “In addition, the new foundation can be poured inside the skirting so we won’t need to lift the building.”

The building currently sits on concrete pads. “The engineer said we were lucky there hadn’t been an earthquake or it would have slid right off,” Cassidy said. The sanctuary has been closed since a February 2020 inspection determined the need for structural work make the building safe.

To date, the church has raised $13,000, with over half coming from Canadian donors. “We need to raise half of the budget in order for work to proceed,” Cassidy said. “A few people are wanting to help with fundraising by helping to write for grants, doing a pre-purchased Mexican dinner, or reproducing the church’s 1960 cookbook,” Cassidy said. One donor has also put forward $6,000 that will be available to match new donations and grow the fund.

Donations are tax deductible, both in the U.S. and Canada. A special Restoration Giving account can be accessed through the Trinity Church website at harmonywebdesigns.com/pointrobertschurch.Alternatively, you can mail a check to Trinity Community Lutheran Church, PO Box 437, Point Roberts, WA 98281. For Canadian donations you can mail a check to The Daily Bread c/o Dorothy Bayley, 1205 Hunter Road, Delta B.C. V4L 1Y9