Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Groundbreaking Ceremony - July 8, 2007

The Ground Has Been Broken, And Work Has Begun!

By Philip Meuschke

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Gaithersburg has been bustling with activity for the past few weeks. Ever since the Special Congregational Meeting on June 10, the ball has really started to roll. Items have been steadily moving into their temporary storage locations for the construction phase. Preparations are underway in the sanctuary to reconfigure it during construction. The trailers that will house our church office during construction will be arriving shortly. The list could go on and on. All of these events lead up to one thing: the start of construction. Even though the wrecking ball has not arrived yet, the symbolic and ceremonial start of construction already happened on July 8 with our Groundbreaking Ceremony.

During the afternoon of July 8, more than 165 members of the Good Shepherd family gathered to celebrate the 42 years of faithful service that our original sanctuary and fellowship hall brought us. We ate one final (very delicious) meal in the fellowship hall, to which all attending contributed food. During the meal, people talked and watched the slide show of pictures from the building’s “birth” until now. The meal was followed with one final worship service, in which we praised and thanked God for all the events and services that the fellowship hall hosted.

Multiple members of Good Shepherd were involved with the service, including Anne Crawford and Betsy Bruning, who both gave wonderful reflections on the fellowship hall. Pastor Dave introduced George Brown the President of Total Construction Services, the company that is going to build our new building. Our Director of Music, Peter Schmidt, led the congregation in song. Then everyone filed outside through the doors by the kitchen for the actual Groundbreaking Ceremony. Pastor Dave, our current Senior Pastor, turned the first spade of earth over, followed by Pastor Dan Oravec, our Founding Pastor; Gil Price, our current Council President; Ernie Kessler, Chair of the Building Committee, and several other members of Good Shepherd. Peter Schmidt then led us in a marvelous rendition of the Doxology, followed by group photos. The event was a huge success, and it was a great start to the construction. Our thanks go out to Vicki Schmidt and everyone who helped pull this event together.

Do not think this is all that has been happening here at Good Shepherd. Less than a week after the Groundbreaking, a team under the direction of John Redmon took down our playground, so that construction can begin on the runoff sewer trench. The hope is to have that part of the construction completed before the preschool opens up again in September. Then, this Sunday, July 22, there will be another Special Congregational Meeting to consider a better loan package offered to the church by Thrivent, our current lender. The hope is that construction will start in full swing the week of July 23. As you can see, we are moving forward very quickly, and before you know it, we will have a new building with a larger sanctuary and more program space to further expand the ministries of Good Shepherd. Come and join in on all the excitement!
Everyone gathered in the Fellowship Hall one last time to eat and praise God From left to right: The Rev. Dan Oravec (Founding Pastor), Gil Price (current Council President), The Rev. Dave Sonnenberg (current Senior Pastor), and Ernie Kessler (Building Committee Chair)

Peter Schmidt, our Music Director, leading the congregation in the singing of the Doxology

 A group photo of those who attended the ceremony
To prove that work has truly begun, here is a picture of the disassembled playground... ...and here is the construction sign

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Last Updated:  10/26/07 12:47 PM