Hello All,
Well, as you probably have found out by now, this is my new blog. It has been a while since I have talked to many of you, so this is an attempt to close the gap between me and you.
Lets start off with what I have been doing. I have been working for a non-profit missions organization called YWAM in the beautiful northwestern corner of Montana in a little town called Lakeside. I truly love it here, I love what I do and the people are second to none. Secondly, I have been working on the construction services side of things here on the YWAM base. The place that I live in was originally designed as an Air Force Base but after 30 years of service to the government it was decommissioned and put up for auction, where a few faithful YWAMers bought it and turned it into, of all things, a missions base. Training and sending out missionaries to spread the word of God all over the world. Needless to say, an old air force base that is now 51 years old and very lived in demands attention. So whenever I am not working on our new building projects here on base, I am trying to keep the place running. Heat, water, sewer.... light bulbs. Whatever needs to happen me and a couple other guys are there for it. I love doing this. There is something freeing about being behind the scenes and making a comfortable and safe environment so that so many people can come and learn about the word of God and then go all over the world to share that love. Some would say its a menial job, I call it fulfilling.
So now that all the pleasantries are over. What have I been up to in more recent terms? Well, since the base was originally designed as an air force base it doesn't suit the needs of a missions organization to a tee. We have made due over the past 24 years by simply absorbing and redesigning to suit our needs. I.E. a theater out of an old heavy trucks garage, a classroom out of the old boiler room, the list goes on. But over the past couple of years there has been need for change in a bigger way. So we have now started to change. In order to accommodate more students we are needing a bigger meeting hall, but to do that we need to move some other necessaries around. So we are starting out by building a building on an already existing slab so that we can move some other buildings around in order to enlarge out cafeteria. I know, sounds complicated and a little over thought. But if you com up and visit me, than I can show exactly how it works, and you can see me too. So, what I am saying is, I have been building a large storage, mechanical and wood/maintenance shop over the past two months. It has definitely been an adventure, and it is already improving the feel of the base. Here are some photos of our progress, these are from about two or three weeks ago so the roof is on now and we have started to build the south wing.
So anyways, I don't want this blog to be simply utilitarian. I actually want to publish some of my ideas, which may not be entirely profound, but they sure are ideas. One that I have been thinking ever since I had to give a bible study last week is the concept as building as worship. Which makes total since if you think about it. I think it is something that has been lost, or perhaps just not as prevalent in the past years. Think about it for a minute, we see the concept as someone playing the guitar as worship, hopefully because they love doing it. And dancing is often seen as a form of worship, once again because they are good at it and they love doing it. Even painting and writing, all forms of worship because the people love to do it. They are good at it and it gives them life and it is something that can happen in a gathering in front of people. For me, building and trades falls into this exact same category, its definitely not as "in the moment" or easily relateable as some forms of worship are. But that is also the beauty of it. The other day I was talking to a friend of mine who had just returned home from a trip to England and he was telling me about his time there and the cathedrals that he went to. For him it was hard to believe that somebody had built that, had taken so much time to build a simple building. To him it seemed somewhat redundant and pointless to build something with that much building whenever it is just a building. To me it makes total sense. It is something that I can do to glorify God, and what makes it even better is that in the end it is practical. The bible study comes in at this point, it was the verse on the lady that poured the perfume on Jesus feet and them wiped them with her hair. She brought her best, hers was excellence for Jesus. This caught me because it made me realize how I want my work to display excellence in all that it is. To bring my best to the table, something that is functional, won't break and at the same time beautiful. Just as much form as it is function. It does make a difference not working for a paycheck and having to live off support with less that what I could have if I had a job doing the exact same thing. But the difference is you are driven by your work ethic and you don't have to worry as much about time, you can take a little longer to perfect something, or to build it just that little bit better. And that is what I want, my work to glorify God, even if it seem indirect. And this applies to anything we do I think. For me though, this has been a point of thought over the past few weeks.
Oh! And also last week we had some random hotel buildings just given to us, its crazy! Here is the video of them coming up our road. I am working on the foundations over Thanksgiving place so that they don't set on the steel racks for to long and start to warp.
