Building Up a Church, Firing Up a Community

Wednesday through Friday, 10 Through 12 August 2011

The big question on everyones mind (especially the Welsh ladies of Capel Seion) was how much could the construction team get done before the funeral service Thursday morning? Would there be wood fragments scattered here and there? Would there be a half finished wall with the guts exposed? Would there be room for the coffin to make it down the aisles?

The team worked at a fast pace, but somehow the spirit was unhurried. Everyone seemed to know what to do without a lot of frenzied communication. All was well ordered and harmonious. The platform area proved to be a never ending quest to find un rotted wood capable of standing upon. Wider and wider the hole grew as wood like peanut brittle shattered away. Unfortunate Welsh teen (and newly born again) Sophie steped upon what looked like a safe bit and crunched through the wood to the dirt below. Oops, more cutting please. But when would the girders ever be stabilized enough to make the platform standable (especially by the larger than life Shreklike) Derek Rees?

Then Thursday morning arrived. The first cluster of ladies arrived for the funeral service. They wandered around looking at all the changes with curiosity. The Baptistry was tiled with glossy white squares instead of porous red bricks. The new youth room was already constructed. The leprous yellow walls were freshly painted with not a blister to be seen. The platform not only stood firm but it was freshly carpets and had a newly painted end cap on the front face. The organ no longer blocked everyones view of the platform, but now resided to the left of th e stage, resting upon a reinforced floor. Not a wood chip or a dust fleck could be found. Admittedly some of the newly constructed or freshly platters walls had not been painted, but anyone could see that there had been a transformation here. The cramped cluttered worship area now seemed somehow larger despite the space dedicated to the Youth Room in the back it had seemed more open, airy, warm, and intimate as well.

One of the Welsh ladies, Margaret, seemed to speak for them all. "We are all like Cheshire cats," she beamed, "we can't stop
Smiling!"

And that's how the team met the deadline with flying colors.

Derek performed the ceremony (his first at Seion) and since the family had requested for us to do so, a little delegation from the team attended the funeral, comprised of Nancy, Donna, and Allen. After the funeral the same delegation was invited by the family to a pub for sandwiches and tea. Somehow they seemed to include the American strangers as part of their family on a formal grieving day. We heard stories of the ladys life, of how much the town had changed in the last six decades, and we snared stories about America. It could not have been sweeter and more tender.

The rest of the week polished what the first part had achieved. We painted and carpeted the Youth Room put in elegant track lighting, similar to that at Capel Gomer, and even bought black and pink (and one brown) padded folding chairs for the youths to sit on in their new room. While the funeral service took place, the rest of the team freshened up Capel Gomer by putting new lights in the dungeon like mens bathroom, and we even stained the greeting center in the entryway (no longer turned so as to obstruct passage through the room). The plant boxes outside were weeded and a new light was put in the entryway.

On Friday, we culminated the week by putting up giant new canvas signs (again designed by the Rice Flocks very own Becky Anderson) at both Seion and Gomer. We wandered around taking photos of all that God had wrought and then we stood and clapped for what everyone had acheived. Eating pizza at Gomer, we recounted the impact of our meager efforts upon the lives of our Welsh friends. We especially thought of sweet Emma and Sophie, new Christian sisters, and leaders of the new community of youth here, and how they embody the fresh work of the Holy Spirit in Wales. We were tired after a hard working week, but it was a happy tired. We had seen God work through us, and we had sensed we were a small part of something much larger He is doing and will be doing in this country of gray stone and grayer clouds for some time to come.

Tomorrow, we are off to Cardiff for sightseeing and an early bed at the hotel ending our adventure. But most of us mentioned tonight at dinner that we are already planning when we can come back again.