Wednesday at Jerusalem Nazarene Church Compound

Charlie is power washing the front of the church.

Today was a full work day at the church. The sky was clear blue with highs in the 60’s. It was a perfect day for work. We had breakfast in the hotel and walked to work at 8AM, where we had devotions and our marching orders and got to work. This facility is need of a face lift to make it more inviting for residents and the constant flow of visitors seeking a Christian church during their visit to Jerusalem. Families with small children who visit the church rarely come back due to the lack of a good nursery area in the church. And visitors of all ages can easily recognize the building is in need of updating and maintenance. There are a number of ministries that operate out of this facility all throughout the week ministering to people of various languages and cultural backgrounds but there is only one “church service” a week on Friday evenings. So the goal is to attract more people to this service and increase the ministry or service opportunities in the future.

So we are here to help give the church a much needed face lift. One project was to repair and paint the walls of the large meeting/dining room. The last time they were painted was by a Mount Vernon/NCO team in 2000 consisting of some of the 2015 team members. The walls needed scraped, repaired in places due to water damage, and sanded before the first drop of paint could go on. So one crew scraped, another plastered, another crew taped off the windows and trim, and then the scraping crew sanded the new plaster smooth. By mid afternoon painting began and the paint crew made it about half way around this large meeting room.

Another project is to create an inviting nursery area for young children. This will involve painting the nursery room and putting in laminate flooring and building in some cabinetry to be functional and divide the room into areas for younger and older children. We got the existing furniture and flooring out of the room, along with all the curtains and brackets. The walls were repaired where needed and are now ready for painting. The subflooring and flooring are ready to put down as soon as the painting is complete.

Another project is to power wash the stone walls of the church. Charlie spent most of the day today power washing years of mold and mildew off the stone block and has about a half day more to go before he will have the outside of this large building looking shiny and new.

The signage and the cross on top of the church that face the street are in need of repair both mechanically and electronically. Today Tim spent the better part of the afternoon painstakingly dismantling the large cross and removing the lighting system inside that has probably not been operational since the mid 70’s. There is a discussion among us as to how best to rebuild and relight this cross so it will be easier to maintain while requiring less maintenance. The cross is mounted on the roof. Right below it are the giant backlit letters NAZARENE CHURCH. We still need to investigate what needs done to get these lights in good working order.

Another project is to trim back branches hanging over the wall from the property beside the church compound, and to clean up and modify a green space in the front corner of the court yard between the front of the church and the compound gate. One crew cleared out all the vegetation in the green space to prepare for re-landscaping of this area.

Of course as all these projects and others where going on today, the kitchen crew made some fantastic meals for us today. And Nancy made sure all the laundry brought to the compound today was washed and ready to be hauled back to the hotel this evening.

It was a very productive and tiring day for all of us. But it is a good tired, knowing we have made tremendous progress on the to do list on our very first day of work. Stay tuned for what happens next!

Tim taking one of countless trips to the dumpster on the street.

Three stories of office and residency space on the side of the actual church.

Looking toward the front of the compound from in front of the garage.

Lunch in the back patio area.

Water damaged plaster in the entryway to the lower level of the church.

The cross from the back, minus the back cover and the old fluorescent lights that used to be inside.

Doc and Diane starting the long process of painting the large great room in the lower level.

Shahade, Ken, Tim and Helen getting ready for the first day of work.

Chef Russ in the kitchen with Jean, Connie and Kendra.

Our four cooks working in the split level kitchen.

Helen cutting in along the ceiling line.

Jeff scraping the blisters and cracks to prepare for Kenny and me to repair with joint compound.

Nancy taking a break close to the freshly mudded walls near the entry way to the lower level. We put fans and a heater in this area to speed up the drying process of the plaster.

Scraped and skim coated entry way. It doesn't look pretty but it is smooth and will look great with a couple coats of paint.

The room that will become a nursery/play room for children.

Helen and Diane preparing the lower level for painting.

Charlie power washing the front of the church from the roof.

Charlie and Ken at the hardware store, drinking the complimentary coffee/espresso.