Walls & Insulation

Old stairwell gone...new wall up!

This what it looks like trying to go down the old stairs...pretty strange!

Tons of drywall.

Walls and insulation.

New basement bathroom walls...

...more walls!

Big room in basement central.

Corner classroom.

Ted's Classroom.

Storage room...the old black double door space!

Mechanical room with electrical panels

This past week has been an enjoyable one celebrating Christmas with my family and spending time with them.

Last Tuesday night was an icy, cold night with freezing rain. We were scheduled to go Christmas Caroling for many of the senior citizens in our church. It was not looking good, but we still were able to round up a small group of carolers and bring some joyous cheer to our seniors. In fact, everyone that went had a blast! Big thanks goes out to Patricia, Bob, Jerry, Kevin, Malorie, Jacob, Nathan, Elizabeth, Jennifer who accompanied me on this Christmas mission! Also, much appreciation goes out to Vera and Linda for their cookies and candy that were presented at each stop.

Good service at church yesterday. It was wonderful to have Susan Scales join us for a service while she was visiting family over Christmas. It was the last Sunday of 2008 and I preached on "My Christian Life in Review." Great time of the year to do a personal spiritual review. Great time to consider making changes before the New Year begins.

Workers continue to make progress on our church facilities. More walls have been built. More insulation has been tucked in the walls. More wires have been run. And more ducts have been added.

One big piece of this rebuild puzzle was to close in the old stairwell to the basement. Concrete blocks have been erected to form a wall at the bottom of the old stairwell. Looks very different. It will take some getting used to! But more solid signs of forward progress...

New walls are going up in the new basement bathrooms. It is also taking shape. You can imagine now where the sinks, stalls and showers will go!

We walk each day trusting God to provide the funds for us to finish this flood rebuild. June 7th was the day the flood hit...we wonder when the rebuild will be finally finished. One thing I know for sure...the dedication day and special guest speaker have already been set!! More details on that as the time approaches.

Visit us @ www.columbusfirstassembly.org to make a generous donation for our Flood Fund. Would you consider making a year-end contribution? We are believing God to help us rebuild DEBT FREE!

Much love to all!

A soul, some stairs and an alarm!

Christmas Family snapshot

Our four children: Jordon, Ashlyn, Trenton & Devon

We enjoyed a great weekend of services, plus another great week of rebuilding progress!

Our Christmas services were held yesterday with our Celebration Service in the morning and our C3 service (Candlelight, Communion & Carols) at night. Good representation at both services!

The sense of expectancy was in the air as we worshipped, prayed and were touched by the power of God's Word. I preached a message entitled, "The Path of Christmas." Simply put, the road to heaven goes directly through Bethlehem. Later Jesus would declare, "I am the way (or the road), the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father except through me!"

At the end of the service during the altar call, a fourteen year-old boy came to the altar with his caretaker friend. He prayed to receive Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior. The beauty of another name written down in glory! Later I learned this moment in his life was a very special one. It was real and genuine. Thank you Jesus for providing the road to get to heaven!

Much work is being done in our rebuilding project. Today marks 6 1/2 months since "The Flood of 2008" hit our church square on. We have been working ever since to recover from this horrific event. Since my last post a week ago, we have seen considerable progress on all fronts:

• Heating contractors still working on installing new duct work lines.
• Electricians working to run conduit and wire, install switch boxes and outlet boxes, junction boxes and rearrange existing electric panels.
• Builders erecting walls, building new stairs, constructing bulkheads for several new moveable partitions to open up larger classroom space.
• Plumbers working to install new lines, move others, set up the water heater in it's permanent location and a host of other plumbing projects.
• Mixing concrete to fill footers.
• Installing new steel beams to hold up the concrete floor around our new stairwell, plus getting ready to install another one when the steel is fabricated too.
• Last but not least, today marked the beginning of removing the concrete steps that were the original steps inside to the church basement. Remember, these steps and also the location were not up to code, so we had to make some big changes in the midst of this flood rebuild!
  

This morning I was up much earlier than normal and out to the church by 6 am...yikes, what was I thinking?...I got up and couldn't get back to sleep! I was ready to disarm our new security alarm system when I opened up the door...but things were not working as I had planned. Don't forget, this is a new system with a new code. Finally, I disarmed it and went about my business. It wasn't but about five minutes or so later when the jobsite foreman and two policemen arrived and entered the foyer. Whoah...looks like I didn't disarm the system quick enough!!!!!!

But if you look on the bright side of things...

• The new alarm system had been properly set...and even automatically set the night before.
• The new alarm system is directly linked to the Police Dispatch station.
• AND lastly, the new alarm system really works!!

Enjoy the picture updates.

Much love to all!

Those middle walls!

Running wire in the basement

Before...

After removing the stone header and blocks

Middle wall in basement gone

Looking toward the new stairwell...with wall gone

Main water line repaired!

Toddler wing foundation repair

Pumping in the mixture under the foundation

More pumping...see all the holes!

Quite the operation!

Looking toward the kitchen from the toddler wing

Newly designed steps

Men's bathroom wall ready to come down...

...Lines cut...

...blocks removed...

...more demo...

Wall completely gone!

Now looking through the men's bathroom to the other side!

View of wall removed from old stairwell to basement

The middle walls came down recently in our flood rebuild. Lots of reconstruction has been taking place recently in our worship center.

Believe it or not there has been tremendous progress on our rebuild. Walls have come down, a concrete mixture has been pumped under the toddler wing foundation (to correct a problem uncovered in this rebuild!), the basement is almost wired for electric, the heating contractors have continued on running the new duct work and other framing is being constructed as well.

It is exciting to see our regional worship center educational facilities taking shape...it's been a long, long time in coming!

We enjoyed a great service yesterday morning. Strong worship time. I preached on the Peace of Christmas. Powerful altar time. Offering included some generous gifts for our Flood Fund...PTL!

I'll keep my comments brief so that I can upload some updated pictures for you to see on the flood rebuild project.

Please don't forget to...

1. Pray for us.
2. Consider making a contribution for our flood reconstruction project...we need your help!
3. www.columbusfirstassembly.org (click the online giving button!)
   
4. Let me hear from you by making a comment on this blog post...are you still following along with us on this faith-filled journey? We all would love to hear from you!!
   

Remember this verse...this came to my mind when I saw the interior walls coming down:

"For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall." (Eph.2:14)

Thanks for watching to see how God directs, blesses and meets our needs. He is the Faithful One!

Love to all.