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!

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. 

Very Full First 24 Hours in Israel

Our tour guide giving us an orientation as we enter the Old City.

 We arrived at our hotel in Jerusalem about 6 PM Monday and got our room assignments and settled in and freshened up for supper. The Nazarene church is just a few blocks from the hotel so we all walked to the church where the pastor and Steve, a young American man staying at the church, had prepared a delicious homemade spaghetti dinner for the team. They added some fresh baked sweet bread and dessert made by the pastor’s family and with special help from his 4 year old daughter. This was a warm welcome and gave us weary jet lagged travelers a second wind to tour the facility and see what projects we will tackle while we are here.

Tuesday morning we had breakfast in the hotel and then boarded our bus for a day of touring in the Old City, The Mount of Olives, Bethlehem and the Shepherds’ Field. We logged about 6 miles of walking throughout the day. We visited the Western Wall, the Via Dolorosa, the Stations of the Cross, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher where we saw Golgotha, the place where Jesus’ body was prepared for burial, and the tomb. We had a bonus stop at the Nazarene property inside the Old City where some people on the team have worked in the past. We got a rare view of the old city from the roof top of that building. Then we left the Old City and headed through the wall dividing Israel from the West Bank to have lunch in Bethlehem. We had excellent local fare that I can best describe as fresh baked pita pockets with grilled chicken and many “fixin’s” including the best humus I have ever had. Our tour guide was is a Christian Palestinian, from Bethlehem and he certainly knows where to eat there. We went from lunch to do a little shopping and then back to touring. We went to the birthplace of Christ, the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane and the Shepherd’s Field.

Western Wall

Golgotha, only the very top is exposed under this shroud.

The Dome of the Rock from the roof of the Nazarene property inside the Old City

The top of the flat rock where Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane

Garden of Gethsemene, with an ancient olive tree, likely over 2000 years old in the center

The Old City from the Mount of Olives. The Garden of Gethsemane is to the right of this picture location and lined up perfectly with the temple mound where we now see the gold Dome of the Rock mosque.  

Sheila and Doc in the Hotel lobby, with a reflection of Kenny in the mirror.

Sheila and Connie checking out the kitchen at the church as Tim looks through the serving window.

Team members boarding our bus at the hotel to get ready for a day of touring,.

Tim and Connie at the Western Wall.

Walking the Via Dolorosa.

Charlie sharing a photo op with fellow police officers,

Four pastors (Sheila, Doc, Russ and an orthodox priest) in one picture at Church of the Holy Sepulcher, right at the top of what the church believes is Golgotha.

Enjoying the view from the Nazarene property in the Christian Quarter in the Old City.

Tim found the hammock on the roof of the Nazarene property.

The artwork in the cove over the rock were they believe Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Standing on the Mount of Olives, makes it much easier to understand how all the events of Passion Week fit together and flow logically and connect together. For starters it was profound for me to see Temple Mound from this vantage and realize that not a single stone of the Temple was left standing just as Jesus said would happen. Today there is nothing of the temple above ground level and a large beautiful Gold Domed Mosque stands on this sacred temple plaza. Standing there on the Mount of Olives, were Judas betrayed Christ and the followers hid, it was also incredibly profound to realize that Jesus’ disciples and other followers not wishing to get caught could have stayed right there among the Olive trees and rocks and witnessed one of the most amazing events in human history. From this location they could have seen the processional of Christ to Golgotha carrying his cross. They could have witnessed the crucifixion. And when Jesus said “it is finished”, they could have experienced the earthquake and saw it literally crack Golgotha from top to bottom. What is more, the temple was situated with the giant curtain in front of the Holy of Holies facing right toward them. So when that massive curtain ripped in two, they would have been in a perfect spot to see it happen and see into the Holy of Holies, a place that was only accessible to the priests. I am overwhelmed just envisioning what that must have been like. When you add the resurrection and ascension to their firsthand experience with Jesus, it is not hard at all for me to see why almost of these disciples were willing to die for their faith.

After a day of touring that will certainly stick with me for the rest of my life, we then headed back to the hotel just before sundown to rest a bit before walking to the church to have pizza and do some more investigating for the projects that need completed here. After that, most of the crew headed back to the hotel for the night. Russ and I volunteered to go grocery shopping with the pastor and Connie. Shopping for fresh produce and groceries in a foreign country is always a challenge. But when the packaging is mostly in Arabic and Hebrew, it is especially difficult to find even basic things like ketchup and brown sugar. But with the pastor’s help we found everything on the shopping list and headed back to the church kitchen to put things away and head back to the hotel for the night.

Cathedral in Bethlehem

Team learning about this cathedral at Bethlehem over the cave stable where Jesus was born.

Grocery shopping in Jerusalem with Connie, Russ and Shahade.

Russ is concerned about getting some quality H20.

Our team boarding our bus one of countless times during our two weeks in Israel.

Shepherds' Field Chapel commemorating where the shepherds where told of Jesus' birth by the angels

Touch Down in Tel Aviv!

The team gathered at Mount Vernon First Church of the Nazarene Sunday morning March 15 before the morning worship service to load up all the luggage and get things prepared so we could head to Port Columbus International Airport as soon as the service ended. The church service was an nice “sending service” for the team made up of people from 5 different churches. I had the privilege of surprising the team with a quartet version of the song “Jerusalem” along with Rodney Cheek and Kyle and Becky Tocheff. Then Pastor Russ Gumm, who is on this team, gave the sermon.

We loaded up the vans and headed to the airport shortly after noon. We are very grateful to John Crouch and Rob Elwood who gave up their Sunday afternoon to drive us to the airport. Thank you guys! We ate box lunches in the vans on the way to the airport where we arrived in plenty of time to make our 4PM flight to Philadelphia. We always try to arrive to the departure airport early to be safe and get our bags and group checked in together. Normally we each check a bag for ourselves and the second check piece is a tub or other equipment that needs to make the trip. We are traveling lighter than usual on this trip since the airline charges extra for a second bag. Connie determined it was better to forgo the second bag and cram the essentials, like bacon, into our one check pieces and three tubs thanks to the generosity of Jean Taylor, the McKenzie’s and Sharrock’s who gave up check bags in order to take the three tubs of food. Thanks to the support of people from First Church we will be able to purchase the rest of what we need in Israel.

The short flight to Philly had us on the ground by 5:30 PM with plenty of time to relax, log into the internet, make phone calls and find something to eat for supper before our 9PM flight to Tel Aviv. The Philadelphia to Tel Aviv flight is a long flight. We left Philadelphia about 9PM EDT and got off the plane after 8AM EDT the next morning. However it felt even longer with the six hour time change because it was after 2PM local time in Tel Aviv when we disembarked.

We arrived in Tel Aviv to bright sunshine and 66 degrees plus. After the long hard winter in Ohio, it was a welcome change and a good sign for the weeks ahead.

Stay tuned for more!

Just One Week Until Jerusalem!

Here is a quick update as the NCO District Work and Witness team prepares for the upcoming project in Israel. The team will assemble at Mount Vernon First Church on Sunday March 15 to load up the vans, enjoy the morning worship service and then head straight to the airport.

Every trip has it's particular travel challenges and this trip will be no exception. On most international trips we are allowed two check bags. That allows each team member to check a bag and a tub of food or supplies for the trip. This year the airline is not allowing the second check bag so we will not be able to take nearly as much of our own food. So many team members are working at packing light so they have room and weight to spare for food and supplies. I personally have great motivation to pack light since I need to save space and weight for our precooked bacon. I know I have an odd sense of humor, but I find great humor in being the barer of bacon to Israel, a place populated by two ethnic/religious groups that do not eat pork. So Jerusalem is a bring your own bacon destination:-).

Please be praying for the team as we prepare to depart next Sunday. I know Connie Sharrock has invested countless hours of work in getting things prepared for this trip. She has been working closely with the missionary in Israel who is making preparations there for our arrival, our work and travel in and around Jerusalem.

On previous trip blogs I have tried to provide some pretty specific travel information as well as itineraries for our work and travel and bios for the missionaries we work with. For safety and security reasons I will not be posting specific daily logistical details or our future plans as we go along. However, I do intend to give regular updates with pictures about the previous day's activities all through the time we are there. The frequency of the updates is largely dependent on the availability of reliable Internet access. It appears that this will not be a problem while in Jerusalem so hopefully I will be able to give updates and post pictures almost daily. So stay tuned!

I took a virtual tour of Jerusalem on Google Earth last week and found that the place where we will be staying and working is a short walk from about every major holy sight in and around Old Jerusalem. So I am excited to be working close by and able to visit so many historically significant places just minutes away in our free time.