Help a child to hear memorial mission concert

Emmanuel's new facilities were filled to capacity with people who came out for a musical evening of singing and playing in honor of Doris Frederick and in support of Dr. Lori Mercer.

Doris was a recent head of the church's Mission and Outreach Committee, a church elder who had served on session, and a woman through whom Christ's love and love of life shone minute-by-minute. Highly organized and deftly diplomatic, she got things done with warmth and humor and by her example showed others how.

Lori, a long-time member of Emmanuel, elder, session member, choir member, youth leader, is also an audiologist who has traveled to Guatemala with a Northwest medical team to provide children with hearing aids, each of which costs $250. Lori paid her own way to Guatemala, and Doris had encouraged the church to support her by helping fund the hearing aids.

All concert proceeds went to the purchase of hearing aids. Church treasurer Deb Melse reported on Sunday morning that the concert had raised nearly $2,500, enough for 10 hearing aids.

The view of the buildingin the architect's drawing

This series of 38 photos takes about 76 seconds to track construction from the same point of view ... pretty much ... as the architect's sketch of the front of the building. It starts the day we moved the organ and piano out of the sanctuary and ends Sunday, Oct. 25.

Remember, if you can not see the photos on the blog, you may need to install a new version of Flash on your computer. This is fairly easy. Go to www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer and follow the instructions. It should take less than half a dozen mouse clicks. Please let me know if this helps.

Pumpkin Party

The first big fellowship event in our new fellowship space involved lots of kids and parents and pumpkin pieces.

This starts with a few photos of the outside of the building in nearly its final form. Only the cross and the brickwork around the awning support remain unfinished outside, I think.

Then, there are a few shots of pumpkin carvers, and the treats they got. Each pumpkin carved received an award from youth group judges.

Come to the sanctuary, which he has consecrated

On Consecration Sunday, the sanctuary was filled to overflowing with old friends and new families. The folding rear wall was opened so that all could be seated. Pastor Steve welcomed the congregation to the future of Emmanuel.

Deb and Liz reported on the highly successful open house the previous day. Corey Schlosser-Hall, executive presbyter of North Puget Sound Presbytery, gave an energetic welcome and invocation, presenting Emmanuel with a painting from a San Antonio artist that imbued Christian and Presbyterian symbols with color and vitality.

After the call to worship from Sally Hanson, we sang an original Dedication Hymn with words by member Lee S. to the tune of Danny Boy. Later, Florence sang a solo rendition of "Save Us, O Lord," as the congregation joined in on the refrain. Liz led the choir in "How Firm a Foundation." Christina joined Stephen on the piano accompaniment.

Steve M., who was head of both the Stewardship and Finance Committee and the Building Committee for the planning, financing and construction of the project, summarized the steps we had gone through. Then, Warren, construction supervisor, outlined how crucial Steve's leadership had been throughout the long, winding, sometimes frustrating process of design, permitting and financing.

Pastor Steve welcomed back several charter members of Emmanuel who had bought the property and gathered and constructed the three buildings that served the church for most of its history. He also recognized other long-time members. He especially welcomed the Rev. Floyd Cronkite, who as the church's founding pastor served some 30 years, starting in 1963, and his wife, Sherry, who was essential to the church's music ministry, among other things.

Sydney led the younger church in a stewardship lesson and helped them explain the "Welcoming the Future" posters they had drawn for this year's combined capital stewardship campaign. After Pastor Steve's message, "Unless the Lord Build the House," Liz led the Youth Choir in "God Is Building a House," self-accompanied with hand chimes.

Then, the youth brought forward baskets of items emblematic of the many ministries and missions of Emmanuel, which Pastor Steve proceeded to consecrate in dedicating our rebuilt structure to God's work.

As the ushers collected the offering, Dave, Pamm and Haley sang "The Blessing" as the offertory.

The fellowship area was soon filled with a roar of conversation as new, old and potential members made friends over coffee and cookies and wondered at what God hath wrought.

What He opens no one can shut

Visitors, neighbors, family, friends and church members surged through the brand-new doors of Emmanuel Presbyterian Church Saturday to be welcomed by friends and by loved ones, and then given informal tours of our new and rebuilt facilities.

The steady stream of visitors got a steady stream of cookies, cakes and breads, plus various refreshments. The kitchen pass-through featured a thank-you poster to St. Brendan Catholic Church for its gracious hospitality to us nearly every Sunday morning for the past year.

Bob J. played the piano in the sanctuary for several hours, providing a pleasant soundtrack to the buzz of conversation that filled the narthex, the hallway and the preschool rooms. Liz's display showed off Music Ministries. Another display reminded us of the upcoming "Help a Child to Hear" Mission Concert in memory of Doris Frederick. The concert will help gather contributions to support Dr. Lori Mercer's trip to provide hearing aids for children in Guatemala.

Mission and Outreach attracted attention to its many ministries with a display of coffee, tea and chocolate for sale.

Parents and children admired the four rooms in the new Matthews Education Wing. Signs on the doorways pointed out the multiple uses each room is supporting from preschool classrooms to church groups to community meeting places. Visitors could build a house for bats (more than a dozen) or fashion a set of custom-beaded earrings (dozens).

Sydney, Hank and Paul inflated, tied and strung dozens of colorful helium-filled balloons all day long. At one point, several youth decided that it would be awesome to hook up a string of them across the front lawn. Awesome, indeed. Until a string slipped somehow. Suddenly, one of Emmanuel's leafless trees was bearing yellow, green, red, purple and orange fruit. Sydney says visitors increased soon afterward.

Phyllis helped longtime members and former members find themselves or their children or buddies of yesteryear in several old photo albums.

Afternoon thunderstorms and cloudbursts, which strained the capabilities of the still unfinished front awning, didn't dampen a euphoric feeling that Emmanuel had finally moved in and taken possession of its new home.

Its windows were placed high

Warren spent most of Friday afternoon up in the air on scaffolding washing the inside of the windows in the clerestory. He also suspended a cross from the east window of the clerestory. This is the cross that for the past year has hung every Sunday on a banner in front of the congregation. Then, he went even higher to replace a porcelain fixture holding a naked bulb. He installed a spotlight there aimed at the cross. His supporting crew moved the scaffolding around the narthex from window to window and, in the end, helped dismantle and store it.

About 4 p.m., crews of congregation members arrived to set up displays for Saturday's open house representing missions, music, preschool, children and youth, hospitality and others. Sue captured photos of the final product waiting in the shadows the night before the big day.

Some of you have indicated a difficulty seeing the photos that go with the blog. You may need to install a new Flash player on your computer. This is fairly easy. Go to www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer and follow the instructions. It should take less than half a dozen mouse clicks.

They sat down to eat their meal

And then they got up and worked all day on building projects.

There were 13 diners, including the two cooks, Frank and Dave McC, at the first monthly Men's Fellowship Breakfast in the new building. Among those chowing down on pancakes, sausage patties, hash browns, scrambled eggs, coffee and orange juice in addition to the cooks were Warren, Bill, Bob, Earl, Jim, Erik, Lee, Dave S., Clair, Larry and Bram.

While few could stay all day, Warren and Bram worked all day on installing the awning panels. Only one panel remains to be put in place. Bob J. and Dave S. turned nearly a dozen 2x4s into thin furring strips that had to placed between the awning's stringers and the plastic panels that make up its roof. They also applied foam tape to the fittings that hold the awning panels in place. Mike couldn't make breakfast but helped out with the awning panels in the afternoon.

Clair and Earl sealed the seams of the vinyl flooring in several rooms. Paul, who also missed breakfast, made sure fire extinguishers were installed correctly, among other things. Dave McC. helped out in several places. Larry and Lee gathered and cut 2x2s, 2x4s and 1/2" plywood sheets left over from construction, or from the deconstruction of the mobile units. They'll be used for shelves in the preschool/Sunday school storage room. Dave McC. and Doug pitched in to move usable -- but surplus -- lumber from the northside lawn to protected storage near the garage.

A sea of glass

When Sydney and I arrived at the church on Tuesday about 5:15 p.m. for a meeting, we found that the front doors now have four double-glass panes in them, which, I found out later, Warren and Bob J. had installed that day. Sue caught some photos earlier in the day as the windows went in.

After the monthly men's fellowship breakfast on Saturday, plans are to assemble a crew to tackle completion of the awning covering around 9:30 or 10 a.m.

Up north

This is sort of a "best of" gallery tracing the demolition and reconstruction of the north side of the church building. There are 59 images. But they go by in about 2 minutes. It's roughly one photo every five days of roughly the same view if not from exactly the same position.

Pretty much in order, watch for foundation, floors, walls, clerestory, roofing, windows, doors, water line, fire main controls, siding, gutters, paint, sidewalk, grass, kitchen ductwork, kitchen vent and playyard.

Phones, shelves and boards

It was a quiet construction week at the church. Larry finished putting up shelves in the nursery, preschool rooms and in the broom closet outside the kitchen, among other things. He also hung a whiteboard and bulletin board in the room that will be used by the preschool, by the Sunday school and for lots of meetings.

Meanwhile, fancy new multiline phones were installed in the church and school offices and in the classrooms. At one point, the fire alarm line wasn't working correctly, but that was fixed the next day.

Significant projects remain including such things as sanctuary lighting, front door glass, the awning roof, brickwork to hold the church nameplate, the cross in the front clerestory windows, men's room laminate repairs, window cleaning, clerestory lighting, storage shelving, general storage cabinets, a folding wall and kitchen plumbing, dishwasher, minor appliances and cabinetry.

NOTE: If you loaned a hose for watering the new lawn, it was a big help and you can pick it up behind the sanctuary.

Opening the doors

We have now held our first Sunday worship and education in the newly rebuilt sanctuary, fellowship hall, offices and classrooms. After service, there was fellowship, plus the Worship Committee met, the stewardship campaign directors conferred on a video and the Youth Choir rehearsed.

I caught some but not all of the happy happenings in the accompanying photos.

Our music in worship included hymns "The Church's One Foundation," "Bind Us Together" and "All Creatures of Our God and King" plus the choir anthem, "Sanctify This Place."

Rose was worship leader and Liz and Deb reminded folks of the open house coming up on Saturday, Oct. 17, followed by the formal dedication of our new structure on Sunday, Oct. 18. Carolyn announced that small group meetings begin Sunday, Oct. 11, after worship to educate the congregation about this year's "Welcoming the Future" capital stewardship campaign. Sally told us there will be an all-church bible study after worship Sunday, Nov. 15, as part of the campaign.

Pastor Steve thanked not only Warren, the construction manager for our big project, but his wife, Connie, and son, Coles, for enabling Warren to work long days and most weekends on the project.

Pastor Steve's sermon topic was "The Inviting Church."

To prepare a place

On Saturday, many congregation members gathered to prepare the sanctuary for our first Sunday worship in the new building.

Construction tools and materials, plus a scaffolding, were being stored in the room or had been moved there as the rest of the building came into use during the week. Earlier in the morning, Kendra's senior project blood drive had set up in the fellowship and entrance area. During the cleanup and move in everyone tried not to disturb that operation.

Warren got us all moving by deciding where the tools would be stored, what materials needed to be kept and what could be recycled or thrown away. He also unhooked a power line that had been loosely installed earlier in the week to see what sort of light some of the new fixtures put out -- not enough it turned out.

When that was done, Sue vacuumed. Then we began arranging the sanctuary furniture. Hank, Alida, Dan and Earl lowered the sanctuary's old folding chairs one-by-one from storage in the garage attic. Several people stacked the chairs on a cart or on handtrucks or just carried them by hand into the sanctuary.

Then, the chairs and pews were set up. Banners were hung. The lectern, communion table and sound equipment, among other things, were positioned. A piano was moved out of the way. Deb cleaned and Bob S. vacuumed again.

Once the sanctuary was set up people drifted off to do other projects they had. I was aware of a few of them. Several went to give blood. Sydney set up the nursery and supervised getting several boxes of stored Sunday School material out of the attic. I got Alida to help me move some big concrete chunks from the parking lot into my pickup, and soon Bill, Paul, Earl and Bram were helping. Bob J. worked on a door in the school offices. Dave McC. helped put together nursery furniture and trim up some of the parking lot vegetation.

Goodbye, St. Brendan's, and thank you

Sunday was our last worship service at St. Brendan's Catholic Church gymnasium during our exodus for reconstruction. Next Sunday, Sept. 27, 2009, we will once again worship in our own sanctuary.

Sue took these photos.

The congregation gathered, sang its last "First Hymn" in St. Brendan's, heard Liz thank Larry and Mary Anne, and Jane, who opened their homes once a week for choir practice. And Jane isn't even in the choir. Each got a potted plant for their doorsteps, doorsteps the choir members had crossed so many times.

The 23 directors of this year's Capital Stewardship campaign, Welcoming the Future, were also consecrated.

But the high point of the day was the powerful and moving sermon that Warren delivered. He challenged each of us to come down from our "mountaintop feeling" of completing this construction project to do Jesus' work, not just church work. He used his own experience of homelessness as a young laborer to challenge us to use this new building to help the less fortunate in our society whenever we can.

Curtain wall

The most noticeable thing that happened on Friday was that the folding wall that used to hang in the narthex was rehung between classrooms two and three. Larry, Paul and Lee spent an hour or so on it. The job turned out to be easier than had been feared.

Moving in

Clean up continued outside.

Inside, departments started to get organized.

Rebecca Kaake of the Puget Sound Blood Center and Kendra Davison of Emmanuel checked out plans for blood drive in the entry area of the church on Saturday, Sept. 26. It will be Kendra's senior project for high school graduation.

The next day will be our first Sunday worship in the new building.

Mopping up

After all of Tuesday's excitement of moving the mobile units out and getting the organ and piano back, Wednesday was less exciting. But Sue was there and caught some of the action in these photos, which are all hers.

Larry mowed the lawn, and Lee fertilized the new parts.

Larry hooked on to an underground power cable for the mobile units with his truck and pulled it out. Paul, Larry and Lee spent several hours moving construction debris and slightly used building materials out of the main church parking lot. The stuff either went in the dumpster, were collected for recycling or were piled up for possible later use elsewhere.

In the evening, Bob J., Paul and Larry trimmed the grill and cover for the organ slightly to fit into its new space a few feet farther back in the sanctuary. Then Larry and Bob lifted it into place and fastened it down.

A joyful noise

Two big events in one day as we get ready to worship in the new building.

Most visible is that the MobileMini crew arrived -- two days early -- and took away the mobile units. Larry, Paul, Warren, Bob J. and Bill were scrambling all afternoon to unhook ramps, water, sewer and electricity. The preschool unit was moved out late in the afternoon. Still lots of cleanup to do.

Sue was there. Here's her report:

I was called at noon today and told to make an appearance at church; the truck was there to take away the admin mobile. I made it in time to catch some of the preparations; putting the tires back on, being sure all the tie-downs were cut. It's a good thing that the guys accomplished as much yesterday as they did, or the mobiles would not have been ready for removal.

Most audible is that the organ and grand piano were returned and set up in the sanctuary. Bob J. was having lots of fun into the evening testing the speakers to make sure each of them was hooked up and working properly.

Again, Sue was there. Her report:

Soon after I arrived to take pictures of the mobile being removed, the truck arrived with the organ and piano. They set them up in the sanctuary with Mary Anne helping to get them placed correctly.

Tables had been set up in the sanctuary for the Tuesday Bible Study. The study was moved to Classroom 1 to make room for the piano movers.

It was quite busy from 1 to 2 p.m., especially. The movers were leaving while the mobile remover was still preparing to leave.

Carpets were also finished in the nursery, the school office, storage rooms, and on the stairway. As a result, the preschool moved its boxed up supplies from the youth room to the storeroom behind the schools' offices. Later, Sunday School supplies were moved in, also. Desks for the preschool director and the director of Christian education were set up in the office.

The ramp came tumbling down

Connie prepared a lovely table in the fellowship area with coffee and cookies for the parents of students on the first day of preschool in the new facility.

The crew of Warren, Larry, Paul, Bob J. and Dick spent much of Monday tearing down the stairways and ramps that an even-larger crew had spent a couple of days building more than a year ago. Much of the lumber involved may find its way into other church projects.

The group also celebrated the ceremonial cutting of the phone line to the admin module, the accidental cutting of which was a frequent if irregular occurence during the construction project. Sue took the photos and noted:

"The old phone line [was] nothing but trouble for the office and workmen. Since it was a line that was mostly on the surface of the ground that is easy to understand. Today Warren, Dick and Larry officially cut it out of our lives. Then Paul went around looking for splices to remove. There were about 5. Larry and Dick were having trouble cutting it with the tools they were using. I wonder why it was so easy to cut when it was the office lifeline to the outside world?"

Each of those five splices Paul found represented at least one place the line had been cut in the past with shovels, backhoes, scoops and, in my case, by pulling apart a previous splice. Lines to the new offices are safely underground.

Almost all the hose bibbs now have a hanger nearby to keep the hoses neat and off the ground.

And Warren was working on the locks for the front door, toilet paper hangers in the preschool bathrooms and vinyl flooring under the kitchen pass-through where we'll be serving coffee Sunday mornings.

Official capacity

The preschool opened today in their wonderful new classrooms.

Pastor Steve and Rena' were both moved into their new offices in the main building over the weekend. The pastor has a lot of unpacking to do today.

Lots of construction related equipment and supplies continue to occupy space in the various storage areas and in the middle of the fellowship area. Dozens of small projects remain to be completed here and there throughout the building, including a multitude of cleaning tasks.

The mobiles are virtually empty. Deconstruction has begun on the ramp from the preschool mobile and can begin now on the ramp and stairs from the office mobile unit, so that both can be removed from the site.

We're aiming for a worship service in the new building on Sunday, Sept. 26.

Let us learn together

Here are some pictures from Saturday at the construction site. The preschool rooms were all ready for their students to arrive on Monday. The sanctuary was pretty much cleared out. The restrooms were nearly finished (a few partition doors were still needed). And deconstruction continued on the mobile units.