While we were in our state of homelessness, we were so blessed to stay with the pastor and his family of Lakeview Baptist Church in Saucier, MS. What they had been expecting to be a few days of us parking our camper in their yard became nearly a full three weeks of us living with them- the kids in his sisters RV and Dan and I in their son's room. (He is in college.) For the first week we were treated like guests. After that they realized we weren't leaving any time soon, and we quickly became family status... which we were thrilled to take!
The church was in the beginning stages of a mini remodel, and we were glad to be of assistance in some small ways. This family cannot sing in four part harmony or play instruments to melt the heart, but we can pull nails and chisel out concrete!
Here are some beginning shots of the guys working on getting nails out of the removed wood. It was going to be reused as strips to nail the sheet rock onto.
Prepping inside to get all of the flooring covered. The beams in the ceiling were going to be painted a creamy shade of white, and the rug was not slated to be replaced, so this was quite prudent!
Nearly all covered, and you can see the back wall is the wood that was getting removed.
Micah was making a good show of working with the chop saw... but that didn't last long. He was actually a great help in keeping Savannah occupied by finding her little critters to play with.
She was thinking about naming the little guy... but I (wisely!) discouraged this. We were in the first week of a 10 week long venture, and I was not about to tote him with us all along the southern coast!
He wasn't the cutest or the nicest one we had seen either. This one clung on for dear life so much so that she was getting a little freaked out that HE had CHOSEN US to be his ticket out of there.
A couple of good flicks and he was off her finger. Whew! That was not going to end well if he didn't decide to leave willingly!
Here Josiah is using a reciprocating saw... I think that is what it is. (I learned something watching my Daddy all those years!) They had to remove the boxes around all of the windows and make new ones that were deeper to be flush with the drywall once it was hung.
Micah also helped Savannah find a new adventure in the bamboo bushes. They cut down tree after tree and made a mess really, but it was an easy clean up and they had a riot with it. Simple children to please!
This is post sheet rock up and painted, and the carpeting was cleaned while all of the chairs were out of the area.
We stopped by after an evening out, and Levi was showing off all of his work. I know he has only been in the first picture so far, but he really did do a lot of the labor!
This is the day we left Gulfport. We made one final stop to the church to see it nearly all put back together. The chairs were in place, and most of the boxes were around the windows...
The ceiling was all painted and the back wall was now a compliment to the main sanctuary in style and color.
This is a shot of the main platform nearly finished. All of this was done within a week! We were certainly not the only people working- there was a crew of four men there every day, but still it was completed in a much shorter time than they expected. It was a blessing to be a part of this church, even if primarily with a little sweat. We have been so blessed by the people of this family of the faith, and we continue to pray for them and their leadership, and the work the Lord desires to do with them. We are also grateful that even though we aren't the traditional "musically talented" missionary family, we are given opportunities to be a blessing in the area of our family's giftedness... demolition and reconstruction!
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