Tuesday August 10th, 2010
Here is e-mail that I sent to Sandra regarding interesting benefits associated with this project...
Hi Sandra,
This evening I started to sand the church doors. It will be a slow process, but it will get done. When I stopped sanding the doors and was removing rust off the iron railing, a man in a backpack stopped and mentioned how nice the church was, he was taking pictures of the church in the morning and was going to come back to take some more in the evening light... I said, "the doors will be finished when you come back..." ;)
It is nice sometimes to focus on the little things that help out the church...
Murray
Friday August 27th, 2010
Working on this project has been an exercise in faith. I started out doing this project by myself, not knowing when it would be completed. Instead of panicking, I just had faith it would work out. For 3 weeks I went through the routine of taking my daughter Megan to practice for Theater Orangeville production of "Treasure Island" (she is female lead). I would work for 2 hours in morning, go home, then return for another 2 hours at night. During those 3 weeks, it went from searing heat in morning at beginning of August to simultaneous chill/heat in morning towards late August. Many times when sanding (especially in the evening), All alone I would ask myself, "what am I getting myself into? What in heaven's name have I done?". But like Sandra preaches in her sermon about a promise (covenant), I cannot let anyone down, especially since I knew of the importance of this and I knew the required work when I started this project. It would be nice to have help, but if I have to do this myself, I will, because I like the people at this church...
I guess that I took-on this project for several reasons:
- To improve appearance of church (i.e. doors are the "window to the soul" and not a second time to give the correct "first impression").
- I would like to redo the front entrances, but let's face it, that is a BIG, BIG project, so let me do something smaller (although it is big), and that will at least move in right direction.
- The finish on the doors were not only "going-going", but had "gone" in some places, and needed to stop / correct the damage.
- To give a sense of Westmininster's renewal at the start of the year and encourage participation (what one person can do).
Now that I finally see the project gaining momentum, I see my faith was truly rewarded!
Nice words from people including Dona Henderson, Margaret Boggs, Chuck Heron, Sandra, Tom and Lynne (to name a few).
Also felt a connection to someone that I believe goes to Al-anon. I don't know name, but he has a mustache and sometimes wears a hat. He was very supportive of me almost on a daily basis. In fact, I think he knew me by name, but I didn't know his, and I don't think he goes to Sunday service (I found that quite interesting). He appreciated how much work I was doing, and offered to help if I got tired. In fact, we started talking and found out he drove a cab in Kingston where I grew up. We determined the wealthy owner, Mark Greenwood, was someone that was in my grade 5 class! I want to show him a picture for verification...
Too bad many people are afraid to volunteer. If you keep an open-mind, you will be rewarded beyond your wildest dreams. You just have to keep the "nose to the grindstone", and not expect it to come right away - it will come to you... I guess that ties in the act of faith - a practical application perhaps... I've gotten to become close friends with Earl Williams and his family. I'm certain a lot about learning about a person is when working with them. We had lots of time to do that when working on the computer lab.
Also, although I thought I was pretty handy, when you learn to listen, you can learn so much from professionals, or people with more experience. I had always thought that I could volunteer with "Habitat for Humanity" to learn more building skills. Although this is still a great endeavor, I only need to look to Westminster to gain many of those skills! Again, it came to me in time...
Saturday August 28th, 2010
Wow, first door urethaned. I feel as if I could cry for joy! (I feel a major milestone has been achieved). Showed various church members that were present for running club or clothing sale...
Encouraged with look of urethaned door, decided to return to church at 12:30 pm to take a picture and post to WIKI...
Murray