Day 3 begins with apologies to the hymn writers...

"Heavenly sunlight" was the theme of the morning; as we arrived at 8:00 a.m. to begin our day's work it was beautiful. Alas, if it had only lasted longer than about 11:00 a.m. God, I know I'm not in any position to complain, but, about this rain...

This was our largest participation day so far with another new face in the crowd, Mary Alyce. So today we had Ed, Byron, Frank, Russell, Kelvin, Joan, Mark, Mary Alyce, Doug, and homeowner Ken. All the more to work hard and get wet! (More on that in a bit.)

The crew today was able to finish the preparations for the siding to go up on the long side that we started on Thursday. We finished the framing and under siding, marked the stud locations (the house studs!), nailed the flashing up, and wrapped with the house wrap. So, we're ready to begin siding there.

Work continued across the back of the house and around the other side and we managed to get it torn off and covered back up before we left for the day... not, however, before the rains came, but we were ducking in and out of the tents during the rains, everyone committed to the task! We'll have to do quite a bit of work around the patio doors, replacing some framing and even doing some drywall repairs inside. Ken began the inside work today.

Carol was once again the lunch wagon, today with sub sandwiches, drinks and some sweets. Thanks again, Carol... we couldn't do it as easily without those of you providing the noon sustenance.

That was also about the time that the rain began.

"There shall be showers of blessing" or in this case, there were also showers of water, and lots of it! ("Shall we gather at the river?") I still say maybe half of us should have been working on the siding and the other half building a big boat. I know, I know-- God promised to never do that again, BUT... "Lord, plant my feet on higher ground." You will notice in today's photos, we spent a fair amount of our afternoon huddled together under the tents, trying to avoid the rain. Unfortunately we all weren't completely successful. Someone (a Deacon, no less) suggested that we have a Deacon wet T-shirt contest. Now that you have had enough laughing to last you a lifetime, I mentioned that to say that we can have fun together and do ministry at the same time. (Thanks, Byron, for the suggestion!)

Remember I said that today's blog post has a hymn theme to it? Well, how's this for being apropos? "I've seen it in the lightning, heard it in the thunder, and felt it in the rain; my Lord is near me all the time, my Lord is near me all the time." And did we ever see it in the lightning! In fact one strike was so close, we not only saw it, some of us felt it! You know what I'm talking about? The kind of strike that's so close that you hear the sizzle, the 'sszzzt', the hair on your body stands up, and then you immediately see the flash and hear the boom. We've already been through that at IVBC, Lord!

We finished up a little early today because of the rain, but looking back, it's been a very productive 3 days. Thanks again to everyone who's had a part, and thanks to you for following along with us by viewing the blog; check us daily to see if we've added anything. See you at church tomorrow!

"Stir Your church, O god, our Father, move throughout its life today; cultivate a sense of mission in our hearts and minds, we pray. Help us to renew commitment to a way of ministry which interprets for our culture how Your truth can make us free."