By Rita McInerney

The end is in sight for the Saturday obligation members of Christ Redeemer Mission have assumed for several months. Soon they will be worshiping in their own church, one they have fashioned with their hearts, hands and sacrifices.

Their Saturday obligation has been to show up on that day each week to convert a roomy brick ranch home on Main Street in Dawsonville into a place of worship.

For several years they've been celebrating Mass at Dawsonville Methodist Church, but mission families have long wanted their own church building.

Theirs is a small and close-knit congregation. Most members are retired or approaching that time of life. Only two of the 25 families have young children.

Christ Redeemer Mission began March, 1982, as a mission of St. Luke Church, Dahlonega. Before that, a priest would come from Gainesville to celebrate Eucharist for about 10 Catholic families. Father Edward Danneker is now pastor.

Rita and Jim Lowe came south to Georgia in July, 1982 from New Jersey and soon were deeply involved in working toward a church for the small congregation. Slowly, funds were raised at yard sales, from donations of summer visitors, and a second collection when there wasn't a diocesan collection.

Several trips were made to the Catholic Center in Atlanta to find out what help was available there. "Archbishop (Thomas) Donnellan got to know us pretty well," Mrs. Lowe says. "But it never seemed to work out. We just knew we couldn't start out with a brand new building." Mission members were starting to get restless. They kept contributing to the building fund without seeing any progress, she added.

This past winter, the congregation began searching for a building that could be remodeled into a church.

When Jim Lowe reported after Mass on a winter Sunday that a four-bedroom house was available for $91,000 on Main Street (Route 9), his announcement was greeted by an enthusiastic "Go for it," from a parishioner.

The property, with its generous corner lot and old oak trees, was purchased with the help of a $40,000 loan from the archdiocese. The mission had access March 15, the same day Archbishop James P. Lyke, OFM, said Mass for the congregation at the Methodist church before going on to St. Luke's for confirmation. Later that day he returned to inspect the future church building and was impressed with its possibilities, Mrs. Lowe says.

Once in possession, the parishioners went to work. With Jim Lowe as "superintendent," the living room, four bedrooms and baths were gutted. Whenever possible, beams, lumber and fixtures were saved for recycling. Once the house was a shell, 1,100 square feet was provided for the sanctuary area seating 100 people.

At the far end of the space, the volunteers installed a platform for the altar. Because the platform was 14 inches high and the ceiling was low, the workers broke through the roof two feet along the center of the room and installed a trey ceiling to allow the Mass celebrant enough height for reverent elevation of the host and chalice.

A typical Saturday work session is productive. One recent session found men and women brushing away the dusty residue left by sheetrock installers earlier in the week. Brooms dusted ceiling, walls and floor, then wet down the area. By late morning a primer coat of paint was being applied to walls and ceiling.

A bountiful buffet partitions the Saturday work day. Wives not on the day's labor roster arrive with casseroles, pastas, ham, salads, and cakes. The dishes are spread in a colorful food puzzle over the counter dividing the large kitchen from the space that is already a gathering area.

The meal break is lively with the talk of friends catching up with a week's worth of news. Joyce Gardner tells of hearing from her daughter, Joyce, a Navy wife on Ewa Beach, Oahu, who escaped the full force of the deadly hurricane Iniki. Her call had come through about 1 a.m. that morning.

Norma Glascock is warmly hugged by Father Danneker, who recently celebrated her husband Leo's funeral Mass. An original member of the mission, Mrs. Glascock is consoled by the friendship and compassion of fellow parishioners.

After eating well, everyone goes back to work. By mid-afternoon the sanctuary area had taken on a brighter look, giving more promise of what it will become and 12 volunteers wear paint freckles on faces, glasses, arms and work clothes.

Mary Kay Aldred at seven was the youngest volunteer, painting away with her mother, Jennie, who doubles as video camerawoman recording the remodeling. Mary Kate is the only child in Rita Lowe's religious education class. One year there were nine children for her to teach, Mrs. Lowe recalls.

Tom Whire ends a hard day eager to talk about the easy job he had selling the 15 pews to mission members and friends. He had four takers the morning he stood up at Mass and asked if anyone wanted to purchase a pew as a memorial. At $500 apiece, the 11 remaining pews were snapped up in no time.

Whire and his wife Edna have been members at Christ Redeemer for five years. Among the original families at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Atlanta, where they spent many enjoyable years, they "were impressed with the friendliness and the activities" at Christ Redeemer when they moved to Big Canoe, Mrs. Whire said. "There is a closeness you don't find in a lot of places."

Jim Lowe says everyone hopes the church dedication can take place in December. It depends on delivery and installation of the pews. They will be of wood upholstered in pale blue to harmonize with the mauve carpet and pale gray walls. Windows will be covered with a plastic covering of iridescent colors resembling stained glass.

"We have a good group of people," Rita Lowe points out. When they can't join the remodeling crew, they are generous in other ways.

One man is building a lectern, and a couple are donating the organ. The colorful bed of annuals along the front of the house was planted by a green thumb gardener and two women do the weeding. Another man regularly cuts the grass with his riding mower.

Sister Helen Emerson, BVM, former pastoral assistant and religious education director at St. Luke, some time ago gave the mission a monstrance and holy water font. Father Henley, now pastor at St. Anna, Monroe, provided a wooden Altar.

The willingness of members of the mission to work together for both fundraising and caretaking hasn't gone unnoticed in Atlanta. In the words of one Catholic Center staff member, the congregation "is not stagnant in any way."