Women of the ELCA
If you are a woman and a member of Brandon Lutheran church you are a member of WELCA too! Contact the office to get a WELCA Handbook for more specific information on our many ministry activities.
2026 Officers:
President - Cheryl Lundeen
Vice President – Carol Smith
Secretary – Mary Entinger
Treasurer – Laurie Johnson
Director of Justice – Barb Sperlich
Director of Discipleship – Marilyn Abraham
Director of Stewardship – Deb Klein and Diane Laycock
Work Groups
All the women of the church are divided up into 3 Work Units. These units are called upon occasionally to help provide food and workers for funerals or other special occasions. You may only get called once or twice a year – depending on the need. This way all women have a chance to serve and the more active circle members don’t get overloaded with the work load.
Upcoming Highlights for WELCA
LWR School Kits
Beginning in May, our WELCA group will be collecting items for our School Kits for Lutheran World Relief (LWR). In the fall, we will have some of our youth put our kits together, and these kits will be sent to Minneapolis for LWR.
These summer months are the best times to purchase many of these items on sale! Please see the lists posted to know what items we can use. We have bags, but need unsharpened pencils, 16 or 24 pack of crayons, pens, rulers, pencil sharpeners, 2 ½ inch eraser2, 70 sheet notebooks, and blunt tip scissors. Bring your items to the drop off table in the Narthex of BLC.
Together, we can make life a little easier for many children and their families who are in need. Let’s see how many kits we can create this year!
2026 Upcoming Events:
June 1 at 1:00pm Executive Welca Board Meeting
June 3 - Family Fest and Barbecue with VBS
Welca will be selling tickets for a raffle of a MN Vikings Adventure Pack to include 2 preseason tickets for game on August 22 @ 12:00 PM Vikings v. Ravens; Vikings' Purse or Ravens' Purse; $50 gas card; and 2 Vikings Pillows -- Tickets sold before and after Sunday and Wednesday Worship now until June 3 @ BLC Family Fest and BBQ or e-mail lj23362@gmail.com -- 1 for $5/5 for $20 -- Ends Wed., June 3 @ 7:00 PM
June 6 at 10:00am - Faithful Greetings
June 8 at 1:00pm - Freezer Ministry
June 13 at 9:30am - Women's Gathering and Outing
June 17 and 18 - Circles Meet
June 17-19 - Synodical Welca Convention in Watertown, SD
July 16-19 - Triennial Women of the ELCA Gathering in Des Moines, IA
Fundraisers help support our Benevolent Budget. Some of the Groups/ Ministres WELCA support are:
Local- within our congregation
- Bible campers
- BLC Sunday School
- Vacation Bible School
- Noah’s Ark Preschool
- BLC Debt Retirement Fund
Community Giving - (Outside our congregation)
- Lutheran Social Services
- Church on the Street, SIoux Falls
- Bethany Meadows
- Noah's Ark Preschool Scholarships
- Lutheran World Relief
- Lutherans Outdoors in SD and Shetek Lutheran Ministry
- Student Ministry Programs at SDSU, USD, Augustana
- Family Connection
- St Dysmas Prison Ministry
- Brandon Valley Food Pantry

