Two weeks before it was time for me to leave West Virginia and go back to North Carolina, an opportunity landed in my lap to spend my days working on the Cohen Building in Grafton. It was an old, nasty building that the city of Grafton gave a friend of ours as a thank you for putting wireless in the town. A group of people had made lots of plans and dreams for the building, but because most of the people involved have incredibly busy lives and schedules, they hadn’t been able to get much of a jump on turning the building into a human-friendly space. Heather happened to have some time off before she started her new job, and Jacob worked nights for the first week and had his days free, so we were able to dedicate some serious time to it and make a serious push towards turning it into FaithWorks Ministries.
While putting in so much time moving things, cleaning things, scraping things, painting things, designing things, building things, getting covered in poop, dirt, dust, paint, sweat, and occasionally blood, I was blessed over and over again in a lot of different ways.
Blessing #1: Heather
Usually I get to spend some quality time with my sister in the summers. We usually take a trip somewhere, but then she’s got to go back to work and our time cuts down a lot. This summer we spent pretty much every moment together. We traveled, worked, and played together, and did so with gusto. We got in one dispute, but we compromised to the point where we were both pleased. People often look at our relationship and think it’s a little bizarre, but I just really like her!
Blessing #2: Jacob & Joel
Between these two, a person can’t help but feel passionate about her faith. Around Joel, you can’t help but talk. He is more passionate about talking about Jesus than anyone I know and than he is about anything else. Joel walked in one day talking about something besides Jesus, and I literally thought something was wrong. Where Joel is the talker, Jacob is the do-er. He never stops. He’s the person who makes you excited to find out what the next work to be done is, even though it most likely means you’ll be up to your ears in something gross. The work might be gross, but it’s never un-enjoyable. These guys are incredibly refreshing to be around. It seems like subtlety and cynicism are trendy in faith circles lately (or maybe I just convinced myself of that), and passion and sincerity are a welcome deviation from that. Also, having these guys around really makes me take a look and realize how wise and passionately excited my dad has become. He’s an old man and has the faith of a 22-year-old. He’s become such a seeker, desperate to know more and adamant that, in the scope of everything he could know (and of all the things he’s changed his mind on in his lifetime), he doesn’t know much of anything. The humility of being willing to question your ideas in your 60s is pretty impressive.
Blessing #3: God’s provision
Watching this building and ministry shape up means seeing God provide over and over. We’ve been able to find and use a ton of materials that were already in the building. We found floor tiles, ceiling tiles, a bar, chairs, booths, vintage free standing video games, pieces of metal for signs, pool cues, and a lot more. Plus, we’ve had $2,000, 40 gallons of paint, 3,000 square feet of floor tile, and a urinal donated. Also, we knew we wanted to find a way to partner with Honduras, and a first step towards that fell into our laps yesterday when I was asked if we’d be interested in hosting a benefit concert for a mission in Honduras. (That’s happening September 24th. Be there. I know I will.) All this makes any worry and frustration we may feel over how in the world we’ll make all of this come together seem completely futile. Because we don’t have to make sure it’ll all come together- God’s got it.
Blessing #4: Expect dramatically, not minimally
I have a habit of setting low expectations, especially for my personal life, on the theory that anything better than my expectations is awesome. But I don’t think that’s how God calls us to hope. He wants eager expectations. And the combination of all of the great things about these weeks is slowly teaching me to expect great things. Invite everyone and see what God can do. Jump in, say yes, plan to be finished, expect to move the mountain.
The crazy thing is, working in the face of all these blessings, the work never got tedious. I could be sore, my eyes blind from being oversprayed by the paint sprayer, hair covered in pigeon poop, hands blistered, and generally epically sweaty. But it seemed fairly impossible not to enjoy being there, have fun, and want to get up early and show up again the next morning.
AWESOME !!!!!!!!