Agency Gives Groups Vision of Hope : Philanthropy: Christian relief organization will donate building materials to help 13 Valley churches and charities make quake repairs or expand.

A team of construction workers and church members have labored for five months to rebuild parts of the earthquake-damaged La Trinidad Church in San Fernando, a task made difficult by inadequate supplies.

But thanks to a shipment of building materials that will be donated by World Vision U. S. early next week, La Trinidad and 12 other churches and charities in the San Fernando Valley will be able to work full-force on their renovation projects.

The Christian relief agency, which also assisted 3,800 families after the earthquake, will donate 25 truckloads of fiber-bond wallboard, paint and plastic supplies in its continuing effort to aid community organizations and those displaced by the earthquake.

“They have donated all the drywall. . . . The material is for the inside of the church,” said Ron Laning, superintendent for Colombo Development, which is coordinating the reconstruction project for La Trinidad Church.

The church’s sanctuary was destroyed in the Jan. 17 earthquake, forcing the congregation to worship in adjacent rooms. “They almost condemned the whole building, but we were able to save it,” Laning said.

“We’ve gone out and really been intentional about working with a large number of groups in the Los Angeles area,” said Tom Konjoyan, a spokesman for World Vision U. S.

World Vision was given 53 truckloads of building materials from Louisiana Pacific. About half was sent to those affected by the Georgia floods, and the rest will be distributed in the Valley to repair quake-damaged buildings and to help charities that need the material for expansion.

The Jeopardy anti-gang youth center, for example, which is run by the LAPD’s Foothill Division out of a large warehouse in Pacoima, will use the supplies to add on much-needed rooms, Officer Isaac Galvan said.

The new rooms will be used for boxing, basketball and other sports, as well as counseling centers for at-risk youth and their parents.

“This worked out fantastically for us. . . . (The warehouse) is fine for what it was before . . . but we need the extra room,” Galvan said.

The materials, which arrived on three train cars late Friday, are scheduled to be distributed Tuesday at a railroad yard in Panorama City.

“(Without World Vision) we would have still been in trailers until now,” said Mike Bishay, pastor at Grenada Hills Community Church, which has received building supplies and at least $75,000 in aid from the agency. The church lost its Christian education facility in the earthquake.

“We were blessed. . . . We didn’t call for them, they came to us,” Bishay said.