Auditorium Project Update #4

This will be the final update on the auditorium project, because thankfully, we are getting close to being done!  Last week we spent the week sanding, painting, installing curtain rods, and making and hanging curtains.  I did not take many pictures last week, but did get a few pictures of the nearly finished auditorium Saturday night after setting up for the Sunday services.  Let me hasten to say that the two different ceiling heights as well as the lighting in the church made it difficult to get pictures which are a true representation of what it looks like.  It looks much better in person than in these pictures, but I wanted to at least share a couple of pictures for those of you who have been praying for our project.  All of the church people are just as pleased as can be with the finished product.

Auditorium Project Update #3

Last week the electrician got all of the electrical wiring done in the auditorium.  It was good to have lights, fans, and a piano yesterday for the services (above).  This morning our church folks came back in to get the interior painting started.  Most of the sanding of the walls had been done the first week, while the hired crew was tearing down the middle wall.  However, we had one very difficult part remaining: sanding the ceiling.  Half of the auditorium has about a 14 foot ceiling, and the other half is about 7 feet.  The new half of the auditorium (which was the landlord's living room) has not been painted in many years, so the discoloration was quite pronounced.  It required intense sanding.  I am thankful for the folks who came to help today.  Here are a few pictures of our day.

Auditorium Project Update #2

Last week was a BUSY week!  Our hired crew worked hard all week on knocking out the wall to expand our auditorium, installing a new door, and doing all the finish work (brick, cement, tile, etc) which is part of a job like this.  In addition to the hired crew, we had about 15 of our church people plus my family working hard on other aspects of the project.  We had to scrape, sand, prime, and paint the exterior wall of the church.  That was a lot of work, but every one worked together and got the job done.  Let me share a few photos from the week.

Auditorium Project Update #1

After nearly two years of searching for a bigger place for our church, God opened the door recently for us to do some remodeling and rent more of the building in which we currently meet.  This morning at 7:00 we got the project under way!  

The remodel includes knocking down one side wall of our auditorium in order to add the landlord's living room (which is on the other side of the wall) into our current auditorium.  This will result in a 100% increase in space!  The project also includes repainting both the inside and the outside, as well as many other cosmetic improvements.

Instead of saying a lot in this post, I just want to post some pictures from our day today.  The church and our landlord are splitting the cost of hiring a crew to do the demolition work as well as the more technical work we cannot do, but our folks are all excited to invest their own labors as well.  Today we had eleven of our church people show up to help!  

My own children have been as excited as anyone else about this project, and they were a big help today too.  If there are too many pictures of my kids in this post...sorry!  I'm not only a missionary, but I'm a dad too:)