Serving the members of the Mineral-Missoula County community and its Lutheran churches through:
* Care Abounds in Communities projects

Your new Mineral-Missoula Chapter leaders (elected and appointed) for 2012 are:

President - Jack Sundt
Vice President - Wayne Bousfield
Records Director - Janice Midyett
Financial Director - Melissa Johns
Director of Cong. Advocates - Cathy Mandler
Events Director - Marilyn Hoblitt
Communications Director - Bill Schwanke
Thrivent Financial Repesentative - Jim Stauffer

Your new leadership team will be in place on January 2 and working with all the chapter's members and churches during 2012. Until then, please work with the current board members.

We will provide more information as we get closer to the start of the project.

Janice Midyett, our chapter's Thrivent Builds Specialist, and Marlene Bachmann, our chapter's Assistant Thrivent Builds Specialist, led the teams responsible for raising the funds for which the chapter is responsible. Thanks Janice, Marlene, and their teams for a job WELL DONE.

THANK YOU all our Thrivent members and other Lutherans for all the work you expended in building this home.

Sunday, December 7, 2008 was a great day for the Frye family and for two other Missoula families, for on that day they were given the keys to their new homes. For most of this year, Thrivent members, other Lutherans, and members of the community worked hard to build three Habitat for Humanity homes in Missoula. One of these homes - the Frye home - was sponsored by the Mineral-Missoula County Lutheran churches, Thrivent Builds, and Habitat for Humanity. But Lutherans did not just work on the Frye home, they also spent multitudes of hours helping to build the other two homes also.

The joyous, excited looks on the faces of the members of the three families will be remembered by all who attended the dedication ceremony and celebration. And the crowd, which exceeded 120 people, was entertained by the barbershop music of the Rocky Mountaineers.

If you have a chance, pleasse drive by the Frye home, located at 4214 Diagon Lane in the Windsor Park Development, a take a look at the wonderful home Thrivent members helped to build.

During the Awards Ceremony for Habitat for Humanity - Missoula, your Mineral-Missoula chapter received Habitat's Ark Award for being 2008's most outstanding supporter of Habitat for Humanity - Missoula. This is the first year that the Ark Award has been given. It was presented to members of the Mineral-Missoula Chapter Thrivent board during an awards ceremony held on January 27, 2009. The Thrivent chapter will keep the award for one year; then it will be passed on to next year's recipient of the award. Each Lutheran church that participated in the home-building project has been given the chance to display the award during the year.

During the past three years, the Mineral-Missoula Chapter sponsored or co-sponsored a Habitat home each year. The first year, St. Paul congregation (via fund-raisers) provided 10% of the cost of the first home, and the Chapter (via fund-raisers) provided 10% of the costs for the second and third homes. Thrivent, through Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity, provided 65% of the cost for all three homes. In addition, Lutherans did more than 50% of the work on each home and also helped with the other Habitat homes being built.

The Ark Award is a hand-crafted wood plaque depicting Noah's Ark being built by the animals. This work-of-art was designed, carved, and painted by the people who make and maintain the carousel horses at Caras Park in Missoula. The team of expert wood carvers, lead by John Thompson, spent about a year in making the beautiful work of art.

The family that received this year's Thrivent Builds home is the Frye family (see photo below): Robert & Kristy Frye; children: Brent, Christopher, Malia, and Logan. This is a well-deserving family who truly appriciates the work that Thrivent members, other Lutherans, and community members and organizations expended to complete the construction of the home.

On Friday, September 21, 2007, Thrivent volunteers from our Mineral-Missoula Chapter and several other Montana chapters got together and distributed food to 240 needy families in the Missoula area. For over two hours, 30 Thrivent members worked together with personnel from the Montana Food Bank Network and the City Food Bank to distribute about 20,000 pounds of food. Your Mineral-Missoula Chapter funded this event through the Thrivent Care Abounds in Communities Program.

Representatives from the Thrivent Regional Office in Spokane were there to help and to showcase the new refrigerated truck purchased with Thrivent funds and built in Montana. The truck, purchased for the Montana Food Bank Network, will be used to distribute food to local food banks/pantries throughout Montana.

Obtaining the funds for the truck has been a multi-year effort by Regional and local Thrivent officers. Because of the support given by many Thrivent chapters in Montana and the success of the food distribution in April (sponsored by the Mineral-Missoula Chapter and supported by many other Montana Thrivent chapters), Thrivent Fraternal donated $80,000 for the purchase of the truck.

A dedication ceremony was held on Sunday, November 11 followed by a celebration get-together with a potluck dinner. The Morrison family moved in on November 15. Therefore, our desire to have them in their new home by Thanksgiving has been realized.

A big THANK YOU to all who helped with this project. This beautiful home is the result of many long hours of work by a large number of dedicated people and numerous gallons of sweat. Many worked on the house itself. Others provided food for the workers, participated in fundraisers, donated money, or completed other behind-the-scenes tasks. Some did all of the above. Without the help of everyone, the home would not have been completed.

Through Thrivent's Care Abounds in Communities program, our chapter helped many hundreds of people in our community during 2008. Twenty five activities, including both fund raisers and hands-on service projects, helped many non-profit organizations, families, and individuals in need. Assistance was given to the needy via the Missoula 3:16 Rescue Mission, the American Red Cross, Seeley Lake Food Bank, Casa de Elizabeth Orpanage, Superior Food Bank, Mineral Community Hospital, Lolo Little League, Crow Lutheran Ministry, college students via the Lutheran Campus Ministry, Montana Radio Reading Service, Superior Community Library, J's House, First Way Pregnancy Support Center, Share House. In addition, funds were raised for a family burdened with unexected medical bills; a home was remodeled for a family that could not afford to make the home safe and pleasant to live in; clothes were purchased for needy children; quilts and prayer shawls were made for those in need; highway cleanups were performed; Thanksgiving baskets were assembled and delivered to needy families.

Your Chapter was allotted $18,210 for its 2008 Care Abounds in Communities program. $10,165 of this was leveraged via fund raisers, resulting in an additional $38,850 raised. $8,045 was used for hands-on service projects. There was a total of over 7,600 hours of volunteer service expended in these activities.

Through Thrivent's Care in Congregations program, our chapter members made a difference in our congregations during 2008. Each congregation was allotted either $1300 or $1600, and these funds were used to purchase materials and supplies for many hands-on service projects and to supplement money raised in numerous congregational fund raisers. $10,350 was leveraged via fund raisers, resulting in an additional $19,522 raised. $5,150 was used for hands-on service projects. Over 5,350 hours of volunteer service was expended in these activities.

In addition, our chapter, together with the nine participating Lutheran churches, Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity, and other community volunteers, constructed a home for a deserving family - the Frye family. Not only that, we helped with the construction of two other Habitat homes in Missoula.

Our chapter and its youth participated in two Join Hands Day projects to make repairs and upgrades to the two Lutheran youth camps located on Flathead Lake. Many hours of volunteer service were expended in performing these work tasks.

We also had a fun time at our annual Chapter BBQ and Griz Football Game. The food was excellent, the fellowship superb, and the Griz won the football game.