A different kind of project

Those of you who have been following my blog for a few years know that we’ve led construction outreach teams and typically head south right after Christmas to help with the Katrina rebuilding process in New Orleans, Louisiana.  If you’d like to read more about the work we’ve done while there, you can check it out here.

This year we’ve decided to stay local and work at Deer Ridge Ministries.   Deer Ridge provides a much needed Sabbath to pastors and their wives from all over the country at no cost to the pastors.  David & Louise have recently opened a new facility in Freeport, Illinois and were in need of a commercial kitchen so instead of going south, we’re staying local and helping our friends, the Deckers.  Our group will also be installing another full bathroom which will allow them to host another couple during each retreat week which means that many more pastors who can be refreshed and renewed.  How great is that? 

Another prong to this “trip” is it allows people who would like to serve but can’t be gone so far for a length of time, such as Phil (check out his story) to participate.

Today is Day One and this is the room where the new kitchen will be (hopefully) by the end of next week.

See where they’re cutting into the drywall?  The floor in this area will be raised as high as the cut high so the Deckers won’t need to carry food up a flight of steps.  They’ll be able to wheel their cart right on in.  The Deckers also host meetings and parties as well as cater to supplement the ministry’s income.  And that big hole in the wall will be a set of double doors that leads to/from the garage.  How handy will that be for unloading groceries as well as make the facility handicapped accessible.

Those legs you see there belong to my sweetie.  He was taking out a gas line at the time and Phil, who I referred to above was up in the crawl space.

I’ll keep you posted on the progress as we go along.