Thursday December 17, 2009
Today’s entry focuses upon putting the finishing touches upon a masterpiece. Derek and Allen yesterday brainstormed on strategies for a forthcoming mission here in July. The possibilities are exciting. But implied in that brainstorming session is that this current mission is so successful that it doesn’t need much more coordination on our parts. And this mission has been overwhelmingly successful. It has achieved all its goals and more – much more.
In terms of the morale of the team and connecting with the people of Capel Gomer, today was a conclusion. We have formed continually sweeter and deeper friendships throughout the week. We loved Elain’s servant’s heart as well as the playfully combative and acerbic façade which thinly covered her thoughtful, sweet, and loving nature. We came to treasure Iestin’s basic decency, and Allen particularly loved discussing the deep things of theology with Iestin -- that is, when Allen could keep up with him.
But tonight the two cultures merged at the Christmas party the Welsh prepared for the Okies. The food was great and good Welsh fare – sandwiches, tasty desserts, Welsh cheeses, and even Laver Bread (Welsh seaweed) with cockles. The two groups physically merged into four teams competing against each other in answering a mixture of Welsh and Okie trivia questions composed by Derek, Matthew (Derek’s brother), and Allen. There was all the requisite wild shouting, hooting, cheering, debating, and laughing that you would expect from a family at a Christmas game. And a family is what we had become. After the game, Derek formally thanked us for giving him one of the finest Christmas gifts he’s ever had – a springboard to launch his new ministry. For every perfect gift, he said, comes down from the Father of Lights. The lights are indeed bright in Wales during the Advent this year.
In terms of work, the Worship Area has been completed in all its glory. Aaron and Bryan worked on the woodwork trim. The carpet was laid today and Derek was the first to step onto the completed stage – to much applause in an impromptu ceremony. Several of the men, including Danny Tengram had labored tirelessly for days trying to get the baptistery unclogged which is under the stage. Tommy Weathers finally combined with Danny and conquered the beastie, winning the cheers of their fellow laborers. Three or four Welsh people can now be baptized – the clog was the only thing holding them back. Who says hard physical labor has no spiritual consequences?
Stephen Wilson and his hard working Outside Crew (including Joshua, Blake, and Michael) finally got the dirt and the bricks they needed and erected the scaffolding in the front. By the end of the day the brick-walled garden space to the right of the entrance was completed and the black earth placed within it, yearning to nourish the greenery Steve was planning on planting there tomorrow. On the far side of the frontage, another bricked garden space was half constructed, the bricks forming a rectangle perhaps two feet tall. The Young Turks manning the scaffolding (including Gavin, Ethan, Brady, and Jonathan) were doing their high-wire acrobatics including scraping and painting the window sills, and especially important, painting the two feet tall metal “Capel Gomer” letters. The copper letters had so tarnished to a dark chlorine color that they were all but invisible against the green and gray stone of the building. Allen and Derek had lobbied for the letters to be painted a bright red. Jamie Howell (visiting for the day from Edmond, Oklahoma by way of a mission position in Cardiff, Wales), Kelly, and especially Elain were convinced that white would look best. It was an all-girls united front. Tough coalition to beat. When the scaffold boys painted one letter white and another letter red, it was obvious that white was the winner. Even Allen and Derek conceded the point, albeit grudgingly. So much for inerrant leadership. Elain did not gloat too much. Well, yes she did.
The scaffold boys eventually moved their traveling road show indoors where they worked on the inside walls and at the end of the day erected a long copper bar which will serve as a mounting platform for the stage lighting. Special honors goes to Jonathan Roth, whose inspired selection of lighting for the stairway has generated rave reviews. It looks like a series of long, thin silver rods hung as if on a descending circular stair, each with a bright glowing cube at the end. Crisp, contemporary, elegant. Special honors also go to Ethan Shuler who has acted as Allen’s personal computer Yoda. Twice the blog has been lost into the techno-void and twice Ethan’s Geordi LaForge-like skills have saved the text – or at least some of it. Without Ethan, Allen may well have slipped into e-depression.
In the Upper Room, Kory and Tim continued to create items in no time at all as if by magic. The three-section portable stage was painted black, the doorway was framed in wood and painted lemon cream color, and the coffee bar was so finished it was pressed into service during the Christmas party. In the kitchen, the Ranneys completed their tiling and the grouting of the backsplash along the sink counter, and it changed in color from a slate gray to a rich panoply of earth-toned yellows, tans, and browns. Tom King and Ken Roth continued their lighting wizardry, installing ultra-modern LED ceiling lights in the Pastor’s Office.
Caleb is a great leader. He gives the people to whom he delegates authority the freedom and flexibility to shine, and yet he holds them accountable so they can shine. He has a sweet, informal demeanor, but no doubts the “Get-Er-Done” Type A personality or the sharp teeth just behind the kind and gentle grin. Who in the world wouldn’t want Caleb to be their boss? You can’t develop the kind of love and loyalty people have for him by just handing them a monthly paycheck. His people would build a wall and then walk through it for him. Or spend their free time working for him a third of the way around the world in a country they never dreamed they would visit.
Today was the conclusion of another kind. Allen always wants to be doing evangelism on mission trips. He wants the Welsh to be drawn to Christ by the acts of love Christians perform for them. In the back of his mind, Allen had given up hope that this mission would be much of an outreach to the rank and file Welsh because of the “Construction” nature of the trip. We have spent most of our time with Christians – with each other and with Derek’s church members. Then the photographer showed up. He had most of us outside wielding various tools in front of the camera, making “Jazz Hands” and singing “Oklahoma.” David and especially Kelly Ranney starred in one series of photos, seated upon sawhorses with our construction team striking silly poses behind them. A second series of photos featured the scaffold boys leaning comically over the railings (with Jonathan’s legs dangling spastically in the air) and starred Gavin as the lead singer, leaning painfully over the edge of the railing with his torso in mid-air. He sang into the microphone of a paint brush. The final set of photos, featured Derek and two “construction” workers carrying a heavy carpet on stage in the Worship Area while Allen walked the opposite direction in the foreground carrying a hammer and – wait for it – a crude wooden cross made of two by fours. A little surrealistic. And weird. And creepy.
Later, a reporter did a phone interview with Derek, then Caleb, then Allen. The story is apparently big news in Swansea. It will be featured in the Saturday edition, which is the most popular day of the week for circulation. It seems Allen’s frustrations about limited evangelism on this trip were premature. Lots of the Welsh people will learn about the acts of love that Christians are performing for the Welsh people. We pray that they may be drawn into the church to see the craftsmanship and stay to connect with the Lord who created wood and stone and light. And them.
That indeed would be a Conclusion -- putting the finishing touches upon the masterpiece that is each man and woman, each boy and girl in Wales.
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