A group of volunteers has constructed walls and put a roof on the Big Sioux Baptist Church’s new parsonage and worship center.
The crew, including eight volunteers from South Carolina, worked last week to enclose the 82-foot-by-30-foot building so that other work can be done inside this winter. The building will replace a set of trailer houses that have been used for the small congregation for many years. Those will be taken off the property once the building is completed, and eventually, a new church is planned for the site.
“It’s not for us. It’s for the Lord. This is his work,” said Mark Goldfuss, who was in charge of the volunteer crew. Goldfuss has a framing business in Greenville, S.C., and a partner who keeps crews working there, which allows him to volunteer. The group goes all over the world and most recently was overseas volunteering.

The crew braved some freezing Flandreau temperatures and wind while working on the project and were housed at the existing church where volunteers also fed them.
Clint and Cathy Paulson, the pastor and his wife from Lake Andes Baptist Church, also came for a day to help work on the building and fuel the workers. They wanted to support the Flandreau church, she said.
The Rev. David Lillibridge with Big Sioux Baptist said the volunteer help gives him hope that the church will be able to grow.
“It’s just indescribable,” he said. People who led the local church before he came several years ago tried to do their best, but putting a fresh face on the church is important.
“A lot of people do not have the capacity to overlook either the facility or the reputation this plot of ground had when we came,” he said. People may be more interested in a church in which the building accommodates all people. “It just improves out testimony in the community,” he said.