Video Experiment

I'm trying something new here - posting a short video to see if it works. This is a bouncy shot of Tsavo elephants taken near sunset inside the Tsavo East National Park in Kenya this summer.

WC Remodel

The WC (Water Closet, or bathroom as you may know it) is coming along! After sitting vacant and empty for 1 whole year, I'm back at it and making progress. The plumbers came about a month ago and got our pipes sorted out, then I've been working on the weekends to get it up to speed. It's hard to take pictures in a 6x7 room with no lights, but here's a few to show the progress.

Working on the floor. I had removed the floor down to the dirt and went back with new joists since the old ones sag and are somewhat rotten.

Working on the door. We needed more room to fit the vanity in, so I "borrowed" the 24" door from the stairwell and replaced the existing 30" door. I suppose any of you who visit in a wheelchair will be out of luck, but it works for us for now! The hole where the old door was is being covered up, since it was useless anyway.

Originally there was a window in this bathroom. Somewhere along the way, the office was added and the window was covered up, but they cleverly left the opening and used it for shelving. I had to reduce the size to fit a standard 18" cabinet that will be recessed into the spot since the new shower will cover part of the old opening.

Jill was a really big help putting up the sheetrock over Labor Day weekend. It actually looks like a room now instead of a dark, dingy cave!

This weekend was spent taping, bedding and sanding the sheetrock. It's definitely coming along and texture is next! While we do the bathroom, we are also going to texture the adjacent bedroom and we also finished out the closet as well. The people who remodeled that closet, who didn't put sheetrock on the inside of it, did the work 10 years ago according to their note on the wall. I added my own note to point out I'm not the only nor worst procrastinator around this house!

Stonebridge Fellowship

September 2, 2007
Most of the churches we have visited so far are fairly large - maybe 500-2000 members. These are the ones that seem to be easier to learn about remotely - i.e. the internet - before attending, and ones that we feel would have good stuff going on with Avery. Stonebridge doesn't really fit that mold. It is a very new church planting effort located in Plainview - it's only been together about a year and has maybe 100 in attendance on Sunday. One of my employees, Aaron Ainsworth, attends there and invited us to try it out - so we did.
As usual, we did a little research on the internet (http://www.stonebridgefellowship.org/). Stonebridge is a church plant by the First Baptist Church in Shallowater of all places. We thought it very interesting that a small town church on the South Plains would be planting another church in a bigger town in the same general area. When asked why FBC is doing this, their response is "For years, we have encountered a number of people longing for a contemporary church, one in which they can identify with. We know that a vast majority of college students, young families, and people of all ages and cultures do not attend church anywhere. We want to offer an exciting alternative." So, they have a neat little church plant going on right in the town where I work and we showed up.

One of the cool things about Stonebridge is their meeting place. They borrow the antique Fair Theatre. "Located in the heart of Plainview's National Historic District, the Fair Theatre was built during the roaring 1920's as an all-purpose theatre for vaudeville and medicine shows.Today, the Fair Theatre's tradition is still alive. It has been restored to its former glory with beautiful balconies and a spacious auditorium that seats over 500 patrons." It's a really neat old building and I really like the idea that this church is recycling it - using a facility that is mostly empty anyway and using it for God's purposes without spending tons of money on a new building. We met Aaron at the front door and he introduced us to a few of his friends that were hanging around the lobby. I was disappointed the concession stand and popcorn machines weren't turned on :). It would have been a cool place to have coffee before church - and I told him he should suggest it. One of the members we met told us about the children's program and that Avery would be with us for a little while and then go to her class after the kid's sermon during the service. He actually went and got her teacher and brought the girl to meet Avery so she would be comfortable going with her when it was time. We really appreciated the extra effort to make us feel comfortable. After waiting for Aaron's wife for a while, it was time to begin worship so we filed into the theater. I was halfway expecting it to be dark and for previews to be showing on a screen!
It wasn't dark, but there was a screen. Not a movie size one, but big enough for us to see the words of the songs. I was a little disarmed by the huge counter running on the screen that ticked off the miliseconds, which i assumed were until worship started and not for when we would blast off into heaven or something. It kind of gave you an edginess that something was going to explode. I'm not sure if that was pursposeful or not, but boy were we ramped up by the time the thing hit zero! And when it did, several college age kids appeared on stage and welcomed us to join them for worship. The worship leader had an acoustic guitar, there was a girl singing back-up (and sometimes lead), some drums and a keyboard I think. It was actually a really good band that led us in a good semi-acoustic worship time. They were really talented, especially considering their age.
The children's pastor invited all the kids onto the stage for their lesson, so Jill took Avery up and sat with her. After they were done, they all trotted off to the upstairs classroom for the remainder of the service and we continued worshipping. The pastor talked about community that morning and important it was to be together and share our lives with each other. Toward the end of the lesson, he invited us to do something really different - and he warned us we'd be uncomfortable and possible not like it. I was thinking, "oh no. This is too much for a first visit!" He wanted us to look around and go find someone else in the church that we didn't know. (That was easy enough for us!) We were supposed to share with that stranger what God was doing in our life at that point in time and then pray together. Then he told us that communion had been prepared down front and he wanted us to come down and take communion together as an experience in community with our new found brother/sister. Some girl came up to Jill immediately, but I looked around and all the guys were already paired up. Being the social butterfly that I am (ha) I started to get butterflys in my stomach. About that time, my friend Aaron popped back in from taking the baby out and we broke the rules and paired up. I must say that the pastor's idea was a really good one and that was a really neat way to experience communion. It's just pretty cool that even though there were strangers all around the room, in acuality they are family because of our relationship with Jesus. That means we aren't (or at least shouldn't be) strangers at all!
While Stonebridge was a neat little church that has a great mission, we really felt like we need to be a part of a more established church at this time. The youthfulness of this church is pretty exciting, but it also means the leadership is very young and there will be lots of growing pains. Not that we are looking for an easy church to just attend and not grow with - just the opposite. We just don't feel like this is the ministry God is leading us to tackle right now. We applaude their efforts and their small group ministry. Aaron keeps me updated on what they are doing - things that are often non-traditional and attractive (like going out and doing community service projects on Sunday morning instead of sitting in their theater). I'm anxious to see what God does with this little group!
Posted by Gabe Moudy at 6:23 AM 1 comments
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