Elder Welker and Elder Brunken are currently serving in the Leest Branch. It was great to be with them in this historic building with faithful members of the Church. The history is worth reading:LEEST, GERMANY (Church News, July 24, 1993)
In the true pioneer spirit, members of the Leest Branch built their own meetinghouse under difficult circumstances. The Church was organized in 1923 in this tiny village a few kilometers west of Potsdam, Germany. When Ernst Richter, baptized shortly after World War II, was called as branch president in 1956, the members still had no meetinghouse.
The Church could not purchase property in the German Democratic Republic. However, in the late 1970s, Pres. Richter was visited by a representative of the ministry of religion. In 1980, the government gave the Leest Branch permission to build a meetinghouse. However, the government said the branch would not receive any supplies from the state building material providers.
Gradually, members in Leest collected materials - a few building blocks at a time, according to Matthew Heiss of the Church Historical Department, who recently visited Germany. It took them three years to collect the needed 55,000 cinder-like blocks and other materials before they could begin building. Often, a member purchased a single sack of cement at a time, with much gratitude, and added it to the collections of materials to build the meetinghouse.
"When they had collected enough, they were ready to begin building," Brother Heiss said. "In March 1983, they broke ground for the meetinghouse, designed by one of the sisters in the branch. Henry Burkhardt dedicated the ground."
To provide water for the meetinghouse's facilities, a well needed to be dug. The water table is at 18 meters, but good water is found at 42. The members decided to dig a shaft 13 meters deep that would prepare the way for a professional well digger to dig to 42 meters. Thomas Heller, because of his slight build, was selected to dig the shaft. He filled buckets with dirt and passed them to Pres. Richeter and his son, Berndt.
The Leest Branch meetinghouse was dedicated in 1990, 10 years after members began building it with their own hands.
