Constructors for Christ...Week One...COMPLETED!!!

I'm sure I won't be able to do this post justice...at least I won't fully be able to convey my emotions. This week has been totally overwhelming and incredibly exciting. Constructors for Christ arrived in town this past weekend and began their first official day of construction on our new church building Monday morning...at 5 am! Each day they start at 5 and work until 7am when they break for breakfast. Then they work until 12 when they break for lunch and finish up a 12 hour work day at 5pm when they stop for dinner. Some families are here with children as young as 3, some are teenagers, college students, many who are retired but continue to work for the Lord...and for some, this is their vacation...what amazing people! It has been so unusually hot this week too...temperatures in the mid to upper 90's. This group has been more of a blessing than I can express...their attitudes have been so uplifting even despite the heat! The boys have absolutely loved meeting everyone and have made fast friends with this week one group. It is so amazing what a group of believers can do when serving the Lord wholeheartedly! We have enjoyed every moment we have spent with the Constructors and are looking forward to the four weeks. This group is truly an answer to our prayers, and we have grown to love them even in the short few days. Here are a few pictures of the site and the progress they have made in only three days...I will update this post with the final pictures of week one, so check back to see this post completed later!

Sunday night before the first official day of construction...

Day One...Monday

The first support beams of the exterior wall frames (hehehe...that is my description...I don't know the official term!) going up...Corey and Ray Dilbeck (the man in charge of Constructors)
What a cutie! He's just happy to be where the action is!

I love this picture of Caleb...He thinks things through so deeply at times...I am praying that as he is taking all of this in it will make a permanent impact on him!

End of Day One...Exterior frames are all up!

Day Two...Tuesday

On day day two, the focus was on interior wall framing...amazing how much different everything looked...the building really started to take form!

Day Three...Wednesday

I didn't get many pictures of the work on day three, but a lot of the work was putting the horizontal braces between the wood they had framed (no clue of the technical terms for all of this, so bear with me ;) I did snap a few pics pretty early Thursday, so you can see the progress they made. Also, Constructors has a neat tradition of writing scripture and their names on the framing of the building...here are Caleb's and mine. Day Four...Thursday
On day four, a lot of the plywood on the outside went up, and the trusses for the roof went up. Every day was long and hot for the volunteers, but Thursday was extremely long for several of them. They were determined to finish the trusses, so after dinner, those who were working on them returned to the sight and worked until a little after 9 pm...a 16 hour day. There's no other explanation for that kind of dedication (for unpaid labor) than that they were laboring for the Lord!
I took this picture the next morning...it was written on the second to last truss...notice the time.

Day Five...Friday

Day five seemed to come much faster than I expected...we were having such fun getting to know our new friends, and it was already time for them to go! As they did the rest of the week, our volunteers worked so hard the final day to get decking on the roof and place supports from the interior walls to the trusses. The boys spent Thursday night with Aunt Michele, so Corey and I got up early (for us ;) and got to the property at 5:59...Corey wanted to be sure we were there before 6, hehe! We worked for the first hour, and then got to eat a yummy breakfast with the group...I forget how yummy gravy is! After we headed back to the site, I got up on the roof to "help" a little with the decking...by the end of the day, they actually got the decking on the back of the building complete and began the front...It is hard to process all that they accomplished this first week!
Around 9, Michele brought the boys out...once they saw Corey on the roof and heard that I had been up there too, they were determined they would somehow get up there too. The first picture isn't so scary until you see the second one...that is the lift they rode up with Corey and Barry to get on the roof...talk about making a mom nervous! I couldn't wait for them to get back down! Thanks to Mr. Gerald for giving them a safe ride up, but especially for bringing them back down!What an amazing week...Thank you to all of our week one Constructors! You are an answer to many prayers, and we pray God's blessing on your lives. You have truly become dear to our family and our church and we are so grateful to God for each of you!

Boating with Friends!

Up until last week we'd only been able to have our family out on the boat. We'd really been looking forward to enjoying some time on the lake with friends, too! Well, last Tuesday we had planned an outing, but we had a terrible thunderstorm around lunch time. We thought our plans might be foiled, but the weather blew through and we were able to go ahead with our plans! We took a group of our senior adults for a cruise up the lake to Cypress Springs for dinner. We had such a fun time! A few brave souls joined us on the boat (I think the weather Tuesday morning would've scared anyone!), and a few others met us at the restaurant. Thanks so much for a fun evening and for being our first friends out on the boat!
We keep our boat at a marina about 30 minutes from Paris Landing, so after we dropped our guests off at the PL marina Corey and I headed back to dock the boat...this was the beautiful view we enjoyed on the ride back! So peaceful!

Bennett is a Little Kicker!

Last week, Bennett was able to go to Little Kickers Soccer Camp! He was excited to actually get to play after watching Caleb get to be on soccer and t-ball teams, it was finally his turn! Monday night it was very stormy, so they had camp inside. It was a little overwhelming for him...he did well at first, but ended up sitting in our laps most of the second half. He left in tears, and we were worried that it would be a long week. Michele took him the second night and with it being out on the field and her bribing him with a slushy afterward, he did very well! Thank you Aunt Michele ;) He actually did great the rest of the week...here are a few pictures.
Bennett receiving his award for best shooter!

The 3 year old Little Kickers with the Henry County Patriots girls soccer team.