Membership Class - Harvest Christian Fellowship

Over the next couple of weeks I would like to post some of the materials we have covered in the membership class at Harvest. I want to do this for two reasons:

1. It helps me to process the information if I can try to restate and/or explain it to you, and

2. I would like your honest opinion on the materials. If you read something that causes you concern - biblically or personally - I want to know. We have not committed to this church yet and should we choose to do so, want to make sure we are making a well-informed and biblically based decision.I should have posted this material immediately after receiving it, but I did not. So - it may be a little dusty in my mind as I try to reconstruct it for you here.

The class was divided up into 4 sections:

1. Who is Christ?

2. What is the church?

3. What makes Harvest unique

4. Ways to get involved - specific ministry opportunities.



We were also given some preliminary information about the church and that is where I want to start today. Please give me your honest opinions/views about this.

Harvest Christian Fellowship - Statement of Faith

• We believe the Bible to be the revealed will of God, the all-sufficient rule of faith and practice.


• There is one God, externally existent in three persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
  God the Father has spoken to us through His Son, Jesus Christ. In Jesus, God became man to reveal the Father to us and to save us from our sins. Forever He is fully God and fully man.


• Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, became our atoning sacrifice through his death, and was raised from the dead bodily, ascended to His Father and will personally return in power and glory to the earth.


• Although we are created in the image of God, we have nonetheless "all sinned" (Romans 3:23). Until we call upon Christ to forgive our sins and become our Master, Scripture claims we are under the dominion of Satan and are members of the kingdom of darkness. Only through faith in Jesus Christ and the cleansing of His blood can we be saved. When we believe in Him, our sins are forgiven, and we are rescued from the dominion of darkness and transferred into His Kingdom (Colossians 1:13).


• The Father and the Son have given the Holy Spirit to regenerate us, transform us into the image of Christ, and equip us for service. Personal holiness, healing, the fullness of the Spirit and all the spiritual gifts received in New Testament days are available now and should be eagerly desired (1 Corinthians 14:1).


• We long for the return of Christ, at which time He will rectify everything that is presently wrong. Until then, we are to work faithfully to bring the world to Him through evangelism and discipleship. (Matthew 28:18-20).


• When Jesus returns, dead believers will be physically resurrected. Believers still alive will also receive their glorified bodies. Unbelievers will also be raised. Then there will be a judgement. Those who are in Christ will live with Him forever. Those who are not will be cast into Hell.


• The church as the body of Christ has been given special gifts (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, etc.) to equip every member of the body to do the work of ministry. The Church is entrusted with the ordinances of baptism in water, holy communion, the anointing of the sick, the marriage ceremony, the appointment of called persons to specific ministries, and with the preaching of the World.


• Ultimately, we believe whatever the Bible teaches on any subject. it is our absolute and infallible authority in all matters of faith and conduct because God inspired every word of it in its original form.
  

Harvest Christian Fellowship Membership Covenant
Having received Christ as my Lord and Savior and been baptized, and being in agreement with Harvest's statements, strategy , and structure, I now feel led by the Holy Spirit to unite with the Harvest church family. In doing so, I commit myself to God and to the other members to do the following:

• I will protect the unity of my church by acting in love toward other members, by refusing to gossip, by following the leaders, by understanding biblical standards for correction or church discipline.


• I will share the responsibility of my church by praying for its growth, by inviting the unchurched to attend, and by warmly welcoming those who visit.


• I will serve the ministry of my church by discovering my gifts and talents, by allowing the pastors of this church to equip me for service and by developing a servant's heart.


• I will support the testimony of my church by attending faithfully, by living a godly life and by giving regularly.


• I have read and understand the biblical expectations Harvest Christian Fellowship has for each of the members of this church. I agree it is my responsibility as a member of this church to embrace and promote these standards of living. I will live by these principles and encourage the other members of this church as they do the same.
  ________________________
  Member's Signature and Date
  _________________________________________________________________
  

I think it is pretty cool the church has a membership covenant and doesn't just accept every Tom, Dick and Harry who wants in. There are high expectations of membership and from what I've seen, the membership works hard to live up to them. Worship is dynamic because everyone there is committed to the church and more importantly, to God and His service. Pew warmers are not welcome to stay for long here, and that is refreshing to me.

So - what are your thoughts? Anything here that puts a burr under your saddle? I'm all ears...

WC Remodel - 6

Jill summed up my latest "progress" quite well in three pictures.

1. Here I am thoroughly reading the instructions for how to properly install the shower wall panels.


2. Here I am doing a really good job of applying the glue.


3. Here is proof at how well I follow instructions.


The bathroom did NOT get finished as planned this weekend. Another panel is on order and so - we have to wait until after Thanksgiving for success.

I DID get the tile laid and most of the painting and caulking done!

Bado: (that means what's left)
Grout.
Shower walls and door.
Light fixture covers.
2 pieces of trim.
Reinstall vanity.
Install towel racks, hooks, etc.
Paint doorframe.
That's it!

WC Remodel - 5

And then it was the 412th day and Gabe said, "Let there be light!" And there was. So much it blinded you to be in the room! And also on the 412th day, Gabe said, "Let there be water!" And there was. So hot it was scalding!

Unfortunately, Gabe is not God and when he said "Let there be light!" there should have also been power for drying hair and charging toothbrushes. There was not. Since Gabe is not God, he can't tell the difference between two identical yellow wires coming out of an electrical box whe wiring in the outlet. Nor can he remember to read the cleverly written label on the end of said wire before he cut that extra length off. Oh well, Gabe the Master Water Closet Remodeler can't get everything right on the 412th day! There must be something left for tomorrow...

WC Remodel - 4

I was finally able to make some progress on the bathroom this weekend. It's really starting to take shape! Here's some pics...

The door is finally hung. I had to remount the hinges onto the other side of the door. While I was at it, I stripped the 10 layers of paint off those hinges - they look like brushed nickel now. I wish they could stay that way! Now I have to reverse the latch and move the catch to the proper height so it will stay closed.

I really, really wanted to show off these lights turned ON! I got all the lighting and electrical done and was ready to connect it all - only to discover I had the wrong breaker. What a dud. Lights should be functional tomorrow. We went ahead and hung the mirror to get the look going. The brown still has to be painted as does the beadboard.

In case you hadn't seen it, this was what the corner from the mirror picture above looked like before we started. Big improvement!

I was able to get beadboard up as well since the last post. I've been waiting on the plumber to do the shower, so I'm hoping the edge of the beadboard matches the edge of the shower. We'll see...

The vanity and sink are mocked up, but not installed. I want to lay the tile first and then mount the vanity to gain a little extra height. Every 1/4" helps, you know. As you can tell, it was a tight fit for the 49" vanity top. I'm not sure it will come out. I got the hardware on the vanity as well. Question here - should the hardware for the vanity and cabinets all match? I vote yes, Jill votes no. What do you think???

This is beadboard on the commode corner. You can see my biggest mistake of the weekend at the bottom left of the light switch box. It's impossible to know where the studs are in this house because of the thickness of the wood behind the sheetrock and wouldn't you know it - there was a stud right where I drilled for the corner of the box. I drilled and drilled and never broke through - this is a bad sign. Sure enough, I was square on the stud and had to move over. I guess a little patchwork will fix this easily enough. Next time, I'll be sure to drill a small test hole!

This is the ceiling above the shower and commode. I put in recessed lighting and I hope it works OK. I think I'm finally done with crawling around in the attic of this house doing wiring! YEAH!

Next time...

The plumber comes this week to install the shower and toilet.

Tile will get laid.

Caulking will be done.

Painting and finish work will commence!

Stay tuned!

Willys Trailer

I'm sure you ladies who read my blog won't appreciate this post, but there are some manly men out there who need to hear this news and see the pictures. Since I got my Land Rover, I've been thinking it would be cool to have a 4x4 trailer to go with it. These were popular in Kenya with Overlanders - folks who were traveling around Africa or just going on safari as they could pack all their gear in the trailer leaving the vehicle available for passengers or just free to drop the trailer and go exploring. Often the little 2 wheel rigs had a tent that folded out on top of them and you could leave everything set up and go exploring without breaking camp. They are full of little nooks and crannies for storing things - water jugs strap on the side, kitchen utensils - everything you need for camping. Plus, you can just leave it all packed up in the trailer when you get home and it's ready to go next time!



The only problem with these commercial rigs is that they are very expensive. And, I've not seen them for sale in the USA. That doesn't inhibit me, though! I'd seen some on the web that were homemade and got to figuring I could do the same. About this same time, there was a community farm sale near Abernathy where a neat little green trailer appeared. It was just perfect - small, lightweight, high off-road stance and had lots of little extras like tarp hooks, parking break, swivel hitch, shocks, etc. It was very old looking and had lots of rust damage in the bed. One of the tires still had the tread on it, which was the old military tread from way back when. It was a purpose built military trailer obviously. I went to the farm sale intending to buy it - if it was cheap. Only one other person bid against me and I won it for $100. I also happened to buy some good mud tires for it at the same auction - $2 each.



Happy with my bargain, I brought it home and got on the Internet to do some research. It turns out this trailer was built by Willys specifically to go behind the M38A1 military Jeeps from WWII. It uses the same axle as the Willys Jeep so the bearings and tires would be interchangeable for easy maintenance. I discovered my trailer was missing several features - such as the parking brake handle, a fold down jack, a fitted tarp and the orignal pintle hitch has been replaced with a farm type hitch. The original trailer also didn't have the tailgate that somebody made in mine. The little trailer was originally watertight and would float with up to 500 lbs of gear inside. Judging by the design and features on mine, it was actually a post-war model produced in the early 1950's. Good restored models bring over $1500 on the net these days, so I got a steal!





Now for the pictures. It's not pretty, but it will be a good little trailer once it's fixed up a little.

The rims are 16" , which match the Land Rover for now. I'd like to change the LR to 15" because tires are so much cheaper for that size.


Notice the little hooks all the way around it. You can buy a fitted replacement tarp for it that had bungee sewed into it to match these hooks.


The hitch is actually on upside down. That bracket on the top should be on the bottom and holds the kickstand jack. I'd like to cut off the farm hitch and replace it with a 2" ball.


It's really rusty inside. The kicker is that whoever parked it with the tongue on the ground could have opened the built-in drain plug in the floor and prevented this!


My trailer had a custom-built tailgate. I think that makes it much more functional. You can see the tires I bought inside it. They look pretty cool mounted, though that little project cost me $60 for mounting and new tubes!

The little trailer pulls real nicely and I think will be perfect for hauling camping gear to the mountains!

WC Remodel - 3

Here are a few more pics from this weekend's work. Well, actually the painted bedroom was done the day Jill got home from Dallas!

The bedroom is now khaki colored - I'm sure Jill can tell you the official color's name if you are so inclined. This is the view looking at the closet door.


This is looking at the west window.


And this is looking at the north window. You can't really see the texture, but it looks 100% better!


I got some work done in the bathroom yesterday. This is the vanity in place for measurement. It will be removed before I lay tile. I want the tile underneath it for the extra height.


This is the linen cabinet that is set back into the wall between the studs.


Looking into the linen cabinet, I had to notch out one corner to go around the corner stud. It will be caulked and the stud was sanded and sealed. It doesn't quite match, but once it is full of towels you will never know!


This is the commode corner. Mother Jill suggested a chocolate brown color above the beadboard wainscoting, so we are trying it. Not sure if we like it or not. It is much easier to paint before all the trim is up, though!


Here is what happens when you take the cheapest plumbing bid. I got ready to install the shower and put down the base. There wasn't a drain pipe in the hole. So, I drew a circle where the drain pipe should be. It's way off. I told them to center the pipe at 12"x12". they did it at 15".


Finally, I got the medicine cabinet installed. It is right above and to the side of the vanity and the shower will be in the big white spot beside it. Since the linen cabinet butted against a wall, I didn't need one piece of the crown molding. I was able to redo it a bit and make it fit this cabinet, which didn't have a molding. It turned out looking much better and seems to help it match better too.

We went to Lowe's after church and picked up the beadboard and electrical supplies. Soon it will be looking much more finished and have it's own lights!

WC Remodel - 2

It's been quite a long time since I updated my blog, so I thought I'd post a few more pictures of the progress in the bathroom. I've been able to make some relatively steady progress and things are starting to shape up! These pictures are from 2 weekends ago while Jill was out of town. I was able to get all the sheetrock finished and textured! Last weekend nothing much happened since it was Avery's birthday and Jill's folks were here.


Since I was going to be doing texture, and it is SO messy, I decided to go ahead and do the bedroom and closet while I was at it. So - it took A LOT of blue tape and plastic to keep all the flying texture off the things I didn't want textured!


Looking into the closet - I had to add sheetrock on the back wall of this closet. When that wall was added to create the hall bathroom (10 years ago according to the date and signatures written on the studs) they never finished the job. Now its done and textured to boot!


The bedroom door and air conditioning vent hole. Lots of patching was done to cover up all the cracks and dents. This room had no texture on the walls so you could see every little hole and dent.


Like I said, lots of tape and plastic.


It was REALLY messy! Everything was coated in fine powder dust from sanding the sheetrock. I found out too late you can wet sand sheetrock and avoid this!


This hole in the bathroom will be filled with a set-in linen cabinet. I had to use the stud space inside the wall so the cabinet would set back enough to clear the door opening. That was after making the door 6" narrower and adding that length to the wall you see here beside the blue tape.


Once I got the texture runny enough to flow through the machine, it worked great and went fast. My arms were sore for days from holding up 20 lbs of mud above my head!


Looking into the bathroom from the Master Bedroom. On the right, where all the white is, there used to be a door leading to the staircase. Not anymore!

We had a good time together. Avery is working in the "shower" area. Right above me you can see the hole where a cabinet will be set into the wall.

Avery was a BIG help and LOVED the mud!

I'll post more pics of this weekends progress soon!