Wednesday Night Lights

The weather is getting nicer the longer we are here.Today was sunny with a high around 70. The forecast for the rest of the week calls for dry sunny weather with highs in the 70's and low 80's.  It was a perfect day today for painting inside and out, as well as for electrical work and continued clean up around the compound and a thorough purging of the garage.

But before discussing the day today, I noticed I left out a couple pictures from the garden tomb tour yesterday that I wanted to be sure and share today. Below is the door inside the tomb. The observation area insid the tomb is just big enough for about 7 people and the area where one would prepare the body and lay the body to rest is fenced off.

Here is a picture of the inside of the tomb. It is a small area and hard to get a good wide angle picture especially with the gate across it. As you can see the tomb is empty:-)!

Jeff shared an excellent and timely devotional this morning for this day of the Lenten season.

Work continues on painting of the doors and gates of the facility. What Jeff is painting here looks like front doors on the sanctuary but they are actually heavy metal gates that slide into pockets in the walls when they open.

Here is one side of the metal double doors that lead directly into the lower level of the church where the great room or fellowship hall is located. Notice the new black paint and the new gold on the cross.

Today interior painting continued but now the work is in the stairwells that spiral up through the building. Helen is in the foreground painting door trim. The goal today was to get as much painted as possible finished to make way for the floor polishers who will be here tomorrow to make the floors shine once again. We are not sure if these floors have been polished in the past 16 years, but we know they were polished by hand by Bob and Vivian McMillan from Mount Vernon First Church back in 1999. 

This picture in a corner of the halls and stairwells shows the difference between the old yellowed walls and the fresh bright paint.

Diane is working her way up through the building cutting in one flight of the many flights of stairs that wind up through the building.

Here is the finished product in the hallway walls and ceilings leading to the main bathrooms of the church. The bathrooms walls and ceilings also got more fresh paint today.

The cross repair and lighting was almost completed today. Everything is done except for putting the backplates on the cross. We wanted to wait for paint to dry and the test of the new light system tonight before closing it up.  The cross stands about 7 feet tall. The frame of the cross recieved a primer coat and a final silver coat of paint today. Charlie installed one additional light fixture in the base of the cross to add more light to the tall lower section.

This morning Kenny and I tackled the project of cleaning out the garage so a car can actually be parked inside. We took many loads to the dumpster. Some items where snatched up by neighbors and passers by about as fast as we could take things to the curb. When we were done, things were pretty well organized with plenty of room for a car. 

Tim and others spent large chunks of time once again today finishing up the brush and foliage clean up all around the compound perimeter. 

Jeff painted most of the day and here he is working on the large gateway to the compound. Notice the cross coming to life now in shiny gold paint.

Here is Charlie wiring the 4 LED flood lights he and I mounted to cinder blocks today. This allows the lights to be independently adjustable but stable on top of the large porch roof. Charlie installed the photo cell for this light circuit and he also installed a photo cell for the cross. Wiring the photo cells went a little slower than it would have at home, since we needed Shahade to interprete the Hebrew or Arabic schematics so we knew which wire was which.

Kenny power washed the stone walls that run down both sides of the compound. The walls looked like brand new after they dried.

Here is Tim priming the metal frame of the cross. Shahade is interpreting for Charlie and me as we are below him on the porch roof trying to make sense of schematics in Hebrew or Arabic.

Here is Connie and Jean working in the kitchen. We have been well fed this whole trip. They constantly outdo themselves on the variety, quantity and quality of food they prepare every day. 

Here is Nancy painting a door to the Ladies restroom.

Tim primed the metal frame of the cross and then he and I painted the frame silver. After that I cleaned the white plexiglass panes with turpintine, a scraper and elbow grease. The tops of the LED bulbs can be seen protruding past the edges of the copper colored center panel. What cannot be seen here is the new light fixture in the base of the cross. We got the cross shined up and ready for the big test after dinner once Sun started to set.

While I was up on the front wall of the church scrubbing the cross clean, I watched Kenny and Shahade get this motorbike running. Apparently it has been sitting in the compound not able to run for about 2 years. From my perch I witnessed Shahade and Kenny getting it running and them taking turns riding it around the building. Now it is parked in the freshly cleaned garage.

After another delicious dinner tonight, Shahade's wife Annabelle and thier two daughters arrived and presented each team member with hand carved Olive wood camels from Bethlehem in appreciation for our work here.

Each camel has a recent picture of the Twal family attached to the neck. We will treasure these gifts of appreciation for the rest of our lives and this will help us to remember to pray for them as they continue to follow God's great commission.

The time finally came after supper to see what a cleaned up cross look like lit up, to test the photocells, and to fine tune the flood light placement. With many eyes looking on from below, I made the journey up to the roof and over the wall onto the porch roof to tune in the floods. From our test last night, it didn't take long with the help of my eyes on the ground to get the lights dialed in to maximize light saturation on the stone wall, and minimize shadows. Here is my view as I layed on the porch roof looking up at the letters, the cross, and the Moon. 

Here is the view of our new lighting from the front gate. The cross and letters have not been lit up for a very long time judging by the state of the lights and wires we removed. Passers by tonight complimented us on the new lighting. At least one group stopped and posed for pictures in front of the freshly lit church. With the photocells installed, the lights will turn themselves on and off at dusk and dawn.

As we walked up the street past the British Councilate next door, we had to stop and take joy in seeing  how nicely the new lighted cross and signage glowed through the trees of the neighborhood.  The LED bulbs should last for about a decade or so of regular nightly use. We will have to make a note to come back in 2025 to change the light bulbs. As we stopped to take the picture below a man who sounded like he was from the UK asked us about the church and Connie and Tim encouraged him to come to the next church service Friday night at 6. He sounded positive about checking out the church. He was there across the street tonight watching a mostly Canadian group play roller hockey. 

Every day children from elementary through highschool age pass by here on their way to and from school. Teens play basketball, volleyball, soccer and even roller hockey in the green fenced in playground across the street. People from around the world come and go from the US Councilate, the British Councilate, and a couple higher end hotels on this block of this street. Then there is the local foot, car and bus traffic that pass by here every day and night in the predominantly Arabic neighborhood. There is a varitable  United Nations of people passing this compound every day and night. In fact we walked past a UN car just down the street from the church on our way back to our hotel. May this church, these lights, and this cross draw people from every creed and culture to this church with ears to hear the gospel of Christ and receptive hearts ready to recieve God's free gift of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.