Photos, & Merry Christmas!

We started work on the 11th Street project in October.  During that month and the following, we had volunteers from the United Church of Byron (IL), Valley Presbyterian (OH),  Crossroads Presbyterian (WI), Woodlands Church (AR), and Fountain City Presbyterian (TN) work on the project.  A few weeks ago, before Faith Presbyterian Church came and discussed their experience working on this project with me, this is how far we had come on the 11th Street Project:

Some new siding, rebuilt laundry room in back, new windows set

Beginning framing of interior walls

New doors, windows, some roof work

It all looked so much better than it had in September!  Great job, guys!  But now, even four weeks later, the project has continued to come along beautifully!  Volunteers that worked on this site since the above pictures include Faith Presbyterian Church, Orchard Lake Community Church, and Colonial Presbyterian.  Check out these pictures I took today:

New front porch

Finished exterior of laundry room, beautiful trim around windows

Bathroom and kitchen framed, tub installed, and now the plumbing and electrical are done!  The framed wall on the left is the “wet wall” that includes plumbing for kitchen (on the left side of the wall) and for the bathroom (on right side of wall)

Plumbing for sink in kitchen

Water heater – in the ceiling!

Electrical work in ceiling in guest room

Plumbing for laundry room

So that’s how 11th Street looks now!  We’ve really made awesome and well-timed progress on this house since we started in October – again, we’re expecting to be done by late February/early March!  How exciting!  Thanks so much to all the volunteers that have worked on this home so far, and for showing love in the work that you do to the homeowner and to all of the PCO family.  And thank you, again, to the Wayne Bell Memorial fund for helping allow the rebuilding of this home.  The electrical and plumbing was all subcontracted out, allowing it to be finished in less than a week – and the Memorial fund helped make that possible.

Today also marks the last day of work before Christmas break.  We will be back in business on December 28th.  So, until then, I hope you all have a very merry Christmas and that you feel the love and blessings of the birth of Christ.  May the time with your family and friends, or just with yourself in the presence of God, be filled with cheer and awe at this most wonderful gift – the birth of the Son of God.

Peace, Joy, and Cheers!

Martin Luther King, Jr – man, prophet, revolutionary

In honor of our upcoming MLK Day event, I have checked out from the library several books on and by the man himself.  Currently I am reading Martin Luther King, Jr.: Spirit-Led Prophet, A Biography, by Richard Deats.  The point of the book is to look at and learn about Dr King as a Christian leader – not just an amazing man who has moved millions with his speech “I Have a Dream.”  I’m about half-way through this short book, and I’m a little ashamed to say that I have learned tons.

What has impacted me most is the realization of how little I knew about and understood the nonviolent civil rights movement – basically headed by King.  Sure, I learned that events happend, like the Montgomery bus boycott, the Sit-Ins, and the Freedom Rides.  Sure, I knew that they were demonstrations of nonviolence.  Sure, I knew that racism used to be even more prevalent, and that it used to have many, many more occasions of disgusting violence and abuse… But I didn’t really know.

When the buses in Montgomery were finally integrated, there was violence against the blacks on the bus on the very first day.

Regarding the sit-ins, Jameson Jones wrote this:
“When called names, they keep quiet.  When hit, they do not strike back.  Even when hostile white youth pull hair and snuff out burning cigarettes on the backs of Negro girls, the girls do not retaliate.  They pray and take what comes, with dignity.”
(in motive, a campus magazine, as quoted in Deats’ book)

Burned with cigarettes?? I merely got cut off in traffic today, and I was ready to hit someone.

Reading this book has made me realize that I don’t truly understood the great difficulties that King not only faced – he stood up against them!  He not only learned about nonviolence – he taught other people to believe in it, too!  The struggles of this man and his community don’t quite fit into my nice little understanding of the world.  Which means that I am being stretched, taught, challenged, and thus growing – in my understanding of reality, of Christ’s love, of the people of the faith.

I am growing full with such a great awe and respect for this man among mans… and the fact that he found such comfort and inspiration in God and his religion.  Dr King took many great risks in his life, but he did it because of the motivation he got from knowing and loving Christ.  Dr King was a true revolutionary – his own church even stood against him, even though he knew what he was doing was right.

So, now I am looking forward to finishing this book, and also to move on to reading other texts written by King.  I am also getting more and more excited about the event in January!