“The new belltower at Trinity Lutheran, part of the church’s $1.7 million expansion, will ring back memories for Dick Schusler (left) of the bronze bell his father saved off an old steam locomotive; for Barbara Lindus, who rang this iron farm bell to call her children (including son Pastor Jim Lindus) home for dinner; and for Dick Schluter, who remembers hearing the hundred-year-old bell call farmhands in for meals on his father’s Odessa, Wash. wheat farm.Laura Canby photos The sound of construction crews will continue to be heard at Trinity Lutheran Church for several weeks after this Sunday’s dedication ceremonies of the church’s $1.7 million facility,16,000-square-foot expansion, but Pastor Jim Lindus anticipates quite different sounds coming from the structure in the months ahead. Those sounds could include shouts of South Whidbey young people playing basketball, volleyball and rollerblading in its 6,000-square-foot gymnasium/fellowship hall; the singing of a hundred children attending Sunday School in eight new classrooms; bells ringing out over an enclosed courtyard; and the din of Trinity’s congregation of nearly 900 gathered together at the same time for special events.With a church membership that in the past 12 years has grown from 70 to 440 active members and a nearly equal number of nonmembers who attend services, the need for more space was a driving force for the addition, but a secondary one, Lindus said. This expansion was planned foremost with the needs of young people in mind — and not just those within our church, but the larger community as well, Lindus said. There’s no place in Freeland that offers kids a safe and welcoming environment with a variety of activities.Though youth programs will be a high priority, programs for all age groups are being planned, from infants and their mothers in a Mommy and Me group to organized gym walks for seniors during the wet winter months. Trinity’s church council is also exploring the possibility of offering child daycare, senior daycare, a preschool, and a community meal center for individuals in need.Our dream is to have this building bustle with activity from morning ’til night, said Sherryl Christie, who heads the church council. Lindus added that it will take some time to grow into the new space as we identify community needs and decide what makes sense for us to provide.One of those identified needs is a place where teens can play basketball. Pastor Peter Mohr plans to offer a standing invitation for area youth to drop by and play basketball on Saturday nights between 7 and 9 p.m. Mohr and the church’s youth ministry team also plan to sponsor separate dances for junior- and senior-high-school-age youths, plus occasional all-night lock-ins. Lock-ins are pretty popular, Mohr said. The kids get to eat pizza, listen to music and play games all night long in a safe and chaperoned environment. He recalled that 60 teens showed up for a lock-in party last year that was expected to draw only half that number.Freeland teens are already showing interest in the gym during impromptu tours Lindus gives to skateboarders who frequent the church’s parking lot and sidewalks.At most places around town skateboarders are told to move along. We take a different approach and invite them in for cookies and let them use our restrooms. With the new gym we can offer them more, said Lindus. That more will also include a baseball field as soon as county permits are received, with a second one planned for the future. Talks have also begun with South Whidbey Parks and Recreation staff to establish scheduled youth sports programs in the gym. Trinity Lutheran Church is already host to some 40 nonprofit community groups a month, providing free use of meeting rooms. When church-related activities move to the new facility, additional meeting time will be available in the old church building located just off State Route 525. We want to make the best use of our facilities, said Mohr, who serves on a facility planning subcommittee, and that means making sure the old church building is used to capacity before reserving space in the new facility. Of course if groups need a larger meeting space our new facility will be open to them. The gymnasium/fellowship hall, which can seat 400 people for dinner and 800 in row-style seating, will also be available for large-scale community events approved by the church council.One room likely to be in demand on winter nights is the Fireside Room, a dividable double classroom with a large river rock propane fireplace. Like the other six new classrooms, the room contains a closed circuit TV/VCR, dry-erase whiteboards, a sink, cabinets and wiring for future computers. Sunday School classes will be held in these classrooms from September to June. Throughout the year infants and children up to age six will be cared for in two nurseries, complete with an enclosed outside play area.Our kids’ safety was another reason for the building, said Lindus. We didn’t like them running through the parking lot between the old church building and the new church, especially during downpours. The facility expansion was designed by Freeland architect Robert Theriault, his 55th church project. It is the third of a four-phase campus building plan.Phase I was the 1992 remodeling of the original Lutheran church built in 1955 located near SR 525. Phase II was the 1996 construction of the church sanctuary and adjoining fellowship hall (which in Phase III will be renovated into administrative offices and an expanded church library). Phase II’s $1.2 million debt was paid off within five years.Phase IV will involve construction of a small independent senior living apartment complex at some future time. We talked with the folks building the assisted living center in Freeland to decide what services we could provide the senior community without duplicating or competing with local business, Lindus said. The desire not to compete with local businesses has also shaped church policy in restricting wedding reception use of the large gymnasium/fellowship hall to church members. We perform wedding and funeral services for anyone in the community, but we have no desire to compete with local businesses in renting banquet space, said Lindus. The church campus includes 24.5 acres, of which eight acres are designated wetlands, restored by the church after the north end property was purchased in 1994. Nearly five new acres were added this April through the purchase of a house adjoining church property to the north on Woodard Road. Renovated by volunteers in May, the house is being rented to help offset its purchase price of $180,000, which has been added to the cost of Phase III.A debt of $1.4 million might keep some church leaders awake at night, but Lindus shrugs at the suggestion. There are many things I lose sleep over, but money isn’t one of them, he said. Lindus anticipates that the debt, which is being financed entirely so far through donations and unsecured loans from church members, will be paid off well within 10 years.Several weeks of work remain before the new facility, begun last November, is completed.Anyone who has built a house understands that it always takes longer and costs more than expected. We’ll just go ahead and dedicate whatever parts are complete, said Lindus. Our dedication ceremony will be brief and somewhat low-key. There will be tours and plenty of food, but we’re looking forward to hosting a larger open house at our annual community worship service July 29 which will be held in our new building this year instead of the (South Whidbey Community) park. Volunteer labor and donations have offset roughly $40,000 in construction and finishing costs. Even the bells for the courtyard belltower are being donated.It’s been a long time since Langley resident Dick Schluter heard the hundred-year-old bell used to call the farmhands in for meals on his father’s wheat farm homesteaded in Odessa, Wash. in 1886. Schluter recalls that it could be heard a mile away.Next to Schluter’s iron bell will hang a 70-pound bronze bell donated by Coupeville resident Dick Schusler and his sister, Susan Whipple. Their father, a steelworker in Peoria, Ill. saved the bell from an old steam locomotive being cut up for scrap metal for the war effort of the early 1940s.Also from Illinois is a large iron bell donated by Barbara Lindus, mother of Pastor Lindus, on a visit from her home in DeKalb, Ill. While painting farmhouses and schools in northern Illinois, her late husband, Harold, acquired the bell from an old farm being torn down. Lindus recalls his parents ringing the bell to call him and his siblings home from playing. Of course, the only one who came home right away was the dog, his mother noted with a smile.The bells will be rung before worship services, at weddings, and at the beginning of funerals. It’s a tradition at our church to toll a bell for each year of life a person lived, he explained. Just this morning the oldest member of our congregation, Lina Foster, died. She was an elegant 96-year-old lady who drove herself to church up until a month ago.The last time I visited her she said, ‘I just want make it back to church to hear those new bells ring,’ Lindus said, eyes welling slightly at the recollection. I wish she could have heard them, he said. “