Thursday at Work in Jerusalem

Thursday was another full day of work at the Nazarene Church in Jerusalem. We picked up where we left off yesterday and completed a number of significant projects and started several more. Painting, landscaping, metal work, electrical work and some furniture work were all on the slate for this rather chilly and breezy day. The sun was out most of the day and I think the high may have reached about 60. Late in the day it clouded up and threatened to rain about supper time but it stayed dry. We have yet to experience rain during our stay.

One project today involved moving some furniture from a music/play room off the great room on the lower level. Tim and I disassembled a nice 3 door cabinet and moved it up a few floors and reassembled it in Pastor Shahade's office. We were proud of our accomplishment since we didn't loose any parts and didn't have any left over when we were finished. Tim and I joked about how we always get in trouble in our respective houses for using too much Pledge when we clean. Wouldn't you know it, the very last drawer we put back into this cabinet contained a bottle of Pledge. We resisted the urge to use it and left well enough alone.

 

Below is the music/play room in the lower level that needed cleaned out and rearranged. With a piano, a key board, and drums in it, this room has found more than one of our team members stopping by to play or attempt to play one or more of these instruments.

 

I spent most of my morning on the roof of the garage situated in the back left corner of the compound. The flat roof was covered in tree debris that had clearly been here for quite a long time. We lost track of how many large buckets of debris that were carried out to the public dumpster located out on the street in front of the compound. 

Charlie and Ken spent a good portion of the morning hardware shoping with Pastor Shahade for various hardware items requested by our team and electrical items needed to repair the lights in front of the church and the cross on top of the cross. With a newly purchased grinder blade, Charlie made quick work of removing the old lamps standing at the bottom of the stairs to make way for the lights purchased today.

Here is Pastor Shahade right as he yelled timber as he cut a large branch over the compound. The limb is on a tree in the neighboring compound across the wall. The property is pie shaped and all three walls had vegetation in need of triming or removal. By the end of the day so much debris was removed from the walls and the garage roof that we filled the empty dumpster out on the street. Fortunately the city sanitation department empties these street side dumpsters daily and by the end of the day, they had already come by and emptied our dumpster again.

 

Helen has been painting for much of the last two days. I gave her a hard time about her paint bucket. It was half of a half gallon milk carton full of white paint. I couldn't resist the old slogan...Got milk? By the end of the day the great room behind her was completely painted, with some minor touch ups needed in the previously water damaged corner of the room. She is standing here at the foot of the stairs that lead up and out of the lower level to the outside. This entryway is now one coated and already looks much better than it did when we arrived.

Lots of painting took place today to clean up the walls, cabinets and doors throughout the lower level of the church. This is critical for this congregation becuase the Arabic and Korean congregations that meet here use this level more than the sanctuary on the floor above. This level provides a large meeting area, a kitchen, classrooms, and soon, a nursery room.

Several ladies could be found late today harvesting bay leaves that grow, or rather, grew wild on the walls of the compound. The last I looked there was a nice size bucket full of bay leaves that will come in handy for cooking.

Below is a view from the back of the church roof looking to the front where the cross rises above the front wall of the building. The old fluorescent light configuration inside the cross was dilapidated and in need of replacement. So new LED lights where purchased today and soon the cross will be lit up once again after years of being out of order.

Here is Charlie in the attic under the cross and large lighted letters on the front of the church troubleshooting problems with the wiring to these lights. This was a three man job at one point, with me down in the switch box in the lobby, Ken on the ladder relaying messages, and Charlie testing the wires up in the attic. Eventually it was determined that the lights had been feed from two different lines over the past 45 years due to a short in the original wiring that had us all scratching our heads by the end of the afternoon.

Below is a view from above the front wall of the church looking down at 70 red bulbs mounted in the back of the 14 big letters spelling  NAZARENE CHURCH on the front of the church. By the looks of things, this sign has been out of operation for a long time. Many bulbs were busted, while others had holes in them with water inside. Assuming this could well be the reason for the short in the line, I climbed down from the roof onto the porch roof and removed all the bulbs. But we soon found that this was not the problem and there were far more problems with the 45 year old wiring and light fixtures than we could possibly troubleshoot. So after an afternoon of investigation and discussions we decided to abandon the existing lighting system and simply add spot or flood lights at the front of the porch roof to shine on the letters. The letters are in need of some minor repair, reanchoring and repainting, and since we will be using front illumination instead of backlighting, we will paint the letters a dark color so they contrast better agains the bright white stone of the church.

Tne view of the street from the cross. 

Hopefully by the end of our time here I will be able to post pictures of freshly painted letters and spot or flood lighting.

Ever wondered what approxiamately 70 old red light bulbs look like in a bucket? Well wonder no more.

Rollin' rollin' rollin'...painting wrapped up in the future nursery room as well today. Now that the walls have recieved their face lift, this room is ready for a new laminate floor to be installed soon. 

Coffee break while finishing the trim painting around the windows in the great room.

Pastor Russ reaching the finish line of the final lap around the great room. The corner behind him with a heat lamp on it is the one that is giving us trouble due to water damage from lack of a proper down spout right outside this corner of the church. To his right are the stairs that lead up to the outside. This is the entryway most often used by the Arabic and Korean congregations that meet here.

Jeff painted the metal doors of the entry way to the lower level today. He requested black paint for the doors and gold spray paint for the crosses that adorn the doors. The gold paint would match the gold crosses on the big metal doors on the front of the church. This cross design is also in all the window bars around the building. Pastor Shahade bought a can of spray paint that had a gold cap, and said Gold all over it, but when Jeff went to use it, he found it was copper colored. Then on close examination he found a small box on the can that simply said "copper". We thought it was an unwritten universal law that paint in a can should match the color of the lid but apparently that law was broken by this manufacturer. So the gold cross project will have to wait until the next trip to the store.

A look at the front part of the right side wall of the compound minus the overhanging trees and vines that had overtaken this side of the property. 

Dinner tonight was served in the freshly painted great room. Barbequed chicken, peas, macaroni salad, and two kinds of dessert were on the menu. We are eating well as usual thanks to Connie and her kitchen crew.  In the picture below Pastor Shahade is standing with one of his daughters opposite his wife and other daughter sitting at the far end of the table. We are blessed to call these people our new friends and we greatly appreciate their spirit and hospitality. Pastor Shahade is a joy to work with. Our team may be his first Work and Witness team, but he is doing an amazing job taking care of us and keeping us supplied, motivated and busy with projects. He is great to work with and a blessing to us all.  

Here are the new lights at the foot of the stairs leading up to the sanctuary.

  

Here are the new lights from the gate. Imagine the silver lettering in a dark color and flood lit, and imagine the cross (not fulling in the shot here) lit from inside with LEDs. That's what we hope to see happen before we leave Israel next week.

A straight on shot of the copper cross that will be gold soon, along with the other crosses adorning the metal doors of the church. 

Metal fabrication began today to re-engineer the insides and backside of the cross with LEDs that are brighter and easier to access for maintenance than the existing fluorescent configuration. Notice the mislabeled copper spray paint is not going to go to waste. It still works just fine as a primer for the backside of the cross.

Ken visiting with Pastor Shahade's family after dinner before we headed home for the night.

This evening a number of us went shopping in the Old City. It is a short walk from our hotel to both Herod's Gate and Damascus Gate so it is easy to head back through the walls and into the shops that fill the corridors of the oldest parts of Jerusalem. We all found the shopping good as vendors were shutting down for the night and motivated to offer us their "closing price" which tends to be their "best price" given up front so they can close a sale and salvage their day in the 11th hour.

More excitement and new experiences await us tomorrow. Stay tuned to hear about it and see more pictures tomorrow evening! Thanks for your prayers and support!