Wayne’s World of Blog

Check it out!  Significant changes to the property are taking place daily. On Tuesday, February 25, the surveyors were staking out the layout of the property.  They staked out the building location, the parking and location of storm drains.  The bulldozer was busy building up and cutting down, getting everything up and down to grade. They even started building up the berm around the lake which will eventually be a walking track.   Further work was done on the lake and the site contractor informed me that with the sandy bottom, the lake should be BEAUTIFUL with lots of clear water.

 I do not have a schedule in hand at the moment, but that should change in the next week.  However, as I understand it, the balance of this week will be spent digging the lake and laying out the site.  The next significant event will be bringing untilities onto the property and getting the building pad ready for the concrete slab.  That’s it for this week.  I’ll keep you posted.  PW

I put my foot up against the stake and placing one foot immediately in front of the other began to count as I stepped “one, two, three, four…twenty-five, this should be about right”, I thought to myself as I looked up and across the hard packed sand.  I was standing at the approximate location of what will be the front edge of the stage.  

As I stood there and looked out across that white sandy building pad, in my mind’s eye I tried to imagine what it will look like when it is finished.  Over to my left I saw a group of people huddled around a coffee cart telling stories of their week and chuckling at the quirky realities of life.  I saw people sitting around tables on a Wednesday evening, enjoying a meal together and anticipating a time of learning and sharing that would follow.  I saw people walking in the front door on their way to CPR training that would take place in the large classroom in the back.  I saw a group of guys completely surrounding a man in prayer who was visibly shaken.  I saw people worshipping God with hands raised high and tears streaming down their faces, standing in awe of a God who loves them so much.  I saw babies being dedicated, people putting their faith in Christ, people being healed physically and emotionally and people being baptized.  I saw people being set free from the chains of addiction and marriages being healed.

As I walked off the building pad it struck me… the images I had seen were not walls or ceilings, not stage lights or sound systems, I saw people.  I was reminded once again that the builidng is just a tool, a tool for God’s work and God’s work is all about people.  It will be a tool that will help build a relationship with God and with others.

I invite you to go out and do the same thing that I did and let me know what you see.  You may leave your thoughts and comments by clicking in the link a the bottom of this post that  says “no comments”.  In the meantime, Peace. PW

Thanks for your interest in the new Faith Community Church Ministry Center. My intention is to use this blog to keep you informed during construction and also create a journal of the process.  Since I just launched the blog today, Thursday, February 21, 2008, I need to catch you up on what has already been done.

On Monday, February 4, 2008 heavy equipment started moving onto the property currently known as “the future home of Faith Community Church”.  The first task to complete was to survey the property to establish the perimeter of the construction site.  Once the lines were shot and the the stakes driven into place, a  large Caterpillar starting clearing trees along those lines.  This would enable a silt fence (protects the environment surrounding the construction zone) to be installed.  Once the silt fence was installed the real work of clearing the property began. 

On Wednesday, February 13, at about 8am, a large yellow machine that I will call “The Tree Monster” began gobbling up trees row by row.  By 2pm that afternoon every tree within the bounds of the construction site had been cut down and stacked in piles.  On Thursday, February 14, another large piece of machinery known as a “Root Raker” began raking the roots  and stumps right out of the ground.  At the same time the loggers showed up and began hauling truck loads of pine trees off of the property and to the pulp mill.  By Tuesday, February 19, most of the roots had been raked and the bulldozers  moved in to start leveling the ground.  It was also at this time that the loggers thinned out our remaining trees making room for the ones left behind to grow larger making them more valuable in the future.

On Thursday, February 21, they began digging the lake and preparing the pad where the building will eventually be built.  They also moved in a mulching machine that rents for $5,000 per day.  It turned the stumps and other tree debris into finely chipped mulch that will be worked back into the soil.  This method of handling the stumps was used as opposed to burning them due in large part to the prevailing winds from the south which prohibit a “burn permit” from being issued.  It is also a more natural and enironmentally friendly way to dispose of the material.

That brings us up to date for now. The next several days will be spent digging the lake and preparing the building pad.  Stay tuned for an update next week.

Well, this is another of a long line of firsts since starting Faith Community Church.  There was the first time I brought two different colored dress shoes to preach in, and the first time I tried to stack all four speakers on top of ”Big Bertha” (the portable sound box…I do not recommend it), and lest I forget, dressing up in a pink dress and talking like Julia Childs as a banana was being crushed into the ear of another gullible “Untalented Show” participant. 

Finally, my very first BLOG.  In fact, it was not very long ago that I started hearing that term and had no idea what it was. and now I am creating one.  As is the case with so many things in life everything has a season, and the season has come for me to BLOG!

Now that I know what a blog is, I have come to see it as a tremendous tool through which to communicate.  I hope and trust SOMEONE will be interested in what I have to say.  I plan to share personal insights, vision, mission and building information on this site.  So… in the mean time…stay tuned…and happy blogging!