Worth a Thousand Words?

taken Friday, April 27

Hmm. Can't figure out how to rotate this in blogger.... 

What's Happening Now

·         The walls are being constructed to support the new bathrooms. 

·         On Monday, the roof-truss work will begin, which is important because then the roofing company can begin their work. 

·         As soon as it dries up a little bit, the storm-sewer will be dug up behind the Laughrun House.

·         The moisture test on the basement will be conducted this coming week.

·         All the fixtures have been ordered for the bathroom and the kitchen. 

·         The representative from Piedmont Natural Gas will be out Wednesday to see about laying a new line to the Laughrun House (so it can run on natural gas and save us money in the long run).

How all this saves us money …

This is an investment that will pay us back & reduce our ongoing operating budget:

Did you know we pay for the piano to be tuned four times a year because of the humidity?  Not any more!  We’ll only be paying once a year.

You all know the cost of oil (about $4 a gallon)… Changing to natural gas will cost us 1/3 of our current fuel expenses.

Right now we pay Roto-Rooter twice a year to clean out our storm sewer behind the Laughrun House.  Soon we’ll solve the problem instead of ongoing payments for a temporary fix.

The Laughrun House furnace runs at about 65% efficiency right now, but the new natural gas one will run at about 95%.

Construction Begins

 You may not want to use the basement door anymore...  Because it is no longer safe to exit that way!


Construction has begun!


These walls will support the upper level handicap-accessible bathrooms.

Peace!

May we all be as cheerful about our part of the work!

Q & A from our last newsletter

Q:  What about Vacation Bible School with all the construction?

A. When the Christian Education Committee met last, they decided with the uncertain timing of construction, the early school release date (and a few other factors) that it would probably be best not to have Vacation Bible School this summer.  If we did decide to have it, we would schedule for the end of summer when construction was completed.     

Q.  Will you accept pledges after April 22?

A.  Of course, but it is really important to the New Life Campaign to make them by April 22 so that we can begin construction with the confidence that we’ll be able to pay for all the projects.  We will even accept revised pledges upwards (if you have taken a closer look at your finances and realize you can pledge more.)

Q:  Is everything going to look exactly like the plans in the brochure?

A.  Probably not exactly, but you can get the basic gist of what’s going on from them.  Plans are often modified during a job to be cost effective and functional.  Our missions (and budget) haven’t changed… and construction will stay true to those.

Britt's Comments from the Kick-Off Banquet

(A few people suggested I post my comments from the Kick-Off.  I do so with the caveat that I intended this as a speech and do not normally write in such fragments.  Also, I usually like to keep blog posts shorter... but here it is.)

For me, there been a fascinating tension in the Christian church between the “physical” and the “spiritual” – and with so many things we must figure out how to balance them:  giving each attention and recognizing how one impacts the other.  And there is no better time to contemplate the relationship between the physical and spiritual than during Lent…  God took physical form, to teach us about spirituality.  And through Jesus’ death, we have New Life… our physical bodies can be used by God to bring God’s Love into the world.

Therefore, we have a responsibility to our physical bodies – The physical is related to the spiritual.  We all have personal experiences--  like going for a run or walk,  going to yoga class, putting in a few sweaty hours in the garden or flowerbeds, working on a Habitat House, or scouring a crusty pan at the soup kitchen – that physical labor, somehow, also seems to align us spiritually.

This project too, (while the emphasis my seem very much on the physical aspects of our church), it speaks loudly about the spiritual nature of First Presbyterian:

The New Life Capitol Campaign comes out of our sense of responsibility to do God’s work in this community – Our building is not empty during the week, but in alignment with the mission of education that brought the Presbyterian church to Burnsville, we allow our facility to be used by not only the Church Street Preschool and Al-Anon, but other groups as well.  And we have a responsibility to maintain the facility we have been blessed with.  Because many people in the community are blessed by what happens in our church.  We see our church as a “home base” from which we go out and do God’s work…

In a sermon a few weeks back, Dr. Bill challenged us, (a congregation that identifies itself as being welcoming) to welcome people unlike ourselves…  Spiritually, we sat in the pews and said YES…  And now, physically we say YES – with handicap accessible bathrooms, with a safe walkway into the church for may be less agile …  All are welcome here.

The Church Information Sheet the Pastor Nominating Committee worked so hard on describes us as a congregation that values Christian fellowship.  (Like at the Kick-Off.) With our last, very successful capitol campaign, we saw how adding the Laughrun House increased opportunities for fellowship… Adult Sunday School (run simultaneously with choir rehearsal), picnics, Carnival, youth group volleyball with other churches… It was subsequent to adjoining the Laughrun House, that our very successful Wednesday Night programs began.  

Many of the New Life projects will also have a positive impact on our Christian education programs, fellowship time, and our Sunday Morning services – which is when people looking for a church come to meet us, the time we invite people to be a part of God’s community here with us…  We want our building to re-enforce that message they hear:

We hope you considering making First Presbyterian your Church home.