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."

Day 2 of this project saw participation from some newer faces. Your blogger had to work his real job today, but I did get to take a few photos and to get the 'skinny' on some of the crew and their escapades. (As you might have guessed, that's real easy to do with this bunch. Someone is always eager to throw someone else under the bus!)

Ed, Byron, Frank and Mark were at it again today and were joined by Russell and Joan. Yesterday's returning foursome, at the close of today, wondered 2 things: why didn't they just put on their wet clothes from yesterday, and, what do they have that's dry that they can wear tomorrow. (In fact, Byron had a tennis shoe blowout, a flat, that you can see in one of the photos. Not good.) I think we're going to rename this mission project 'The Noah Project'. We have our own Sea of Galilee right here in Orange Park.

Well, I was wondering how long it would take, and who the winner would be, that would put a nail into a PVC water line. If you guessed Day 2, and Mark Eckles, you would be correct! When it was explained to me this afternoon, it was said, "It was sooooo close to missing! In fact it was just a tiny nick in the pipe." But it still had to have an emergency repair to keep the water from imitating Yosemite in the wall! Like we needed more water at the site!!!

Cherryl was today's lunch caterer; thanks for seeing to it that the workers today were well-nourished, even though it was not a nice day for a picnic.

The blogger needs to come clean and explain one of the photographs. You probably were wondering why I included a lovely picture of Ed's sturdy, yellow, metal (steel) saw horses. If you ask Frank, he would tell you it's because Ed needs a photo as documentation for an insurance claim against yours truly. See, yesterday I was fastidiously cutting away when it felt like I had hit a knot, or even a nail, in one of the boards that were on said saw horses. Little did I realize that someone had adjusted the depth of cut on 'my' circular saw and I proceeded to almost cut Ed's 2 steel saw horses into 4 pieces. See those perfect cuts? Things of beauty. I even managed to cut off one of the handles. He didn't believe me, that I could even do that but, hey, I'm good at whatever I do!!!

We will begin Day 3 tomorrow at 8:00 a.m., 'Lord willing and the creek don't rise'. How true, how true, how true.

It was 7:15 a.m. when Ed and I arrived at the house with his tool trailer in tow. (I think everything a person could need on a project is in that trailer. I even tried to order a sandwich and drink as a snack this afternoon!) I digress...

Kelvin and Byron were already there waiting on us and we 4 began our work. Frank, Ron and Mark joined us soon thereafter and we worked hard today. Suffice it to say that we'll sleep well tonight!

Despite the threat of rain, we got right into it by removing the trim pieces, assessing the extent of the damaged siding, and opening up the side of the house by cutting out all the lower damaged areas. (Remember that trailer of Ed's? Well in it was this super-duper, very handy Fein oscillating tool. An amazing little device that I made use of all day today. I've got to get one!)

We ended up having to replace all the framing where the bathroom window was. Mr. Ed led a crew through that little project and it would have been completely covered from the elements had Ed not mismeasured. Yep, he of 'tool trailer' fame mismeasured!! Now with his reputation shattered, Frank says, "you're just one of us now!" Frank manned the chop saw all day and did a superb job at cutting all those 2-by's. Mark and Byron took turns manhandling the pneumatic framing nailer and were more than ready to hand over the 'beast' by the end of the day! The circular saw was my primary tool today as I ripped the OSB boards and did all the cut outs for the water lines, vent pipes and wires; they needed someone with extreme skill and attention to detail for those assignments. (I know that was a self-serving statement, but hey, I'm doing the blogging, o.k.?!)

We had a gourmet catered lunch, complements of Carol's Deli. We especially liked the pretty pastel flowered napkins that so carefully wrapped the plastiware utensils! Ah, a lady's touch!

God was good to us today in that, even with the threat of rain, we almost managed to finish up without getting wet. As it turned out, it only rained a little while but it rained A LOT! We managed to get all the tools back in the snack trailer-- I mean tool trailer-- but Frank, Ed, Byron and I got SOAKED. We looked as if we had jumped in pool. You can use your imagination as to what that ride home was like!

Enjoy these photos from today and I'll try to keep the posts up so that you can follow our progress by checking in here on this blog.

Rest well everyone. It's 8:00 a.m. tomorrow.