It's Official

The snow has hit and the foundation is not poured. So, it's official. Our church building project will begin in the spring. We are a little disappointed, but we know that God is in control and He knows what we do not. We will still keep you posted on our happenings throughout the winter. Thanks, all, for your prayers.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

On Sunday, Septer 21, Jubilee Baptist Church had the privilege of ordaining Mr. Allen Blooflat into the ministry. He and his wife, Rosa have been members of Jubilee Baptist Church since it's organization in 2003 (I think) and attended for some time before that. Allen teaches frequently during first service on Sundays and is always willing to fill the pulpit whenever Pastor needs him to. He leads a Bible Study at Heritage Place nursing home where he is employed as a nurse. His wife, Rosa, is in charge of our missionary encouragement. She sends our missionaries and their families birthday cards and other things that she knows will help make their lives easier on the field. She also frequently takes charge of the church's endeavors in encouraging Pastor and Mrs. Bickish.
Both of them are faithful in witnessing to neighbors and co-workers, both with their lives and with their mouths.

Besides Pastor Bickish and Bill Wood, our own pastors, we invited D.J. Harvey, from Seward, AK and Ray Boutwell, from Kenai, AK to join us in acknowledging what God has called Allen to do. The fifth man laying hands on Allen is a missionary to Trinidad, who joined us for the service. (Sorry, I can't remember his name at the moment - Debbi)

It was an exciting day for our little church. We had many visitors - a total of 37 people attended the service. Amy Spilman, one of our former members who married and now attends another church, joined us and sang "Each One, Reach One." Pastor preached a sermon titled, "A Sacred Trust." Allen was ordained, then he preached the second service.

Good News!!

We have found an architect who is working with the fire marshal to get him what he needs. We are so grateful to God for that. The architect told us that it usually takes four to six weeks for the current process we are in to go through. Since we would like to pour concrete before the first freeze, this is not great timing. So, we would ask for your prayers concerning the concrete - either that the application would go through quickly and we would get the approval to pour concrete soon, or that the freeze would hold off for a couple extra weeks. We know that God can work either way.

Aside from the building process, over the past couple of weeks, the church has had a few visitors from our past. There has been some illness and traveling involved. It was certainly good to see their faces again. God is good, all the time!

And the photo is from what we ladies hope will be the last picnic at the shelter for the year. :)

Summer Activities

So, the building process is still halted. We are currently waiting on the architect and the fire marshal. Hopefully, we will be able to get things with them taken care of soon. We would like to pour the concrete before first freeze.


We haad a picnic in the shelter on the first Sunday of August. While there, we planted some new grass and fertilized some we had already planted. Here is a photo of Abigail Harley spreading grass seed, while in the background, Pastor Bickish and Eric Blooflat check out the comfort of the older grass. We also are putting in a horseshoe range. It has been fun for the younger people to learn a new game.

Some of the teenagers and young people pulled out a soccer ball and found an area to kick that around. This photo is taken from about the corner of what will be the building and looking toward the two streets that our property sits at the intersection of. Here, Josh Stables, Rebekah Wood and Jared Wood play soccer.

The church rented a bobcat the same weekend to even out some dirt. In this photo, Scott Harley and Elizabeth Wood dream about driving the bobcat. Both are pretty confident they would do a fine job.

So, we are still waiting on the Lord for our building, but we are enjoying the property in the meantime. We didn't get photos of them, but two of the neighbor boys came over and played with the church children and had a snack with us. We hope that even without our building, the property will be able to be a tesitmony to those around us.

Apology

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We are sorry for the mistake. If you have considered in the past leaving a comment, we would appreciate it if you would try again.

Thanks

Our Signs

So, we thought you might like to see the signs on our church's property. The first one, of course, is our sign, with the stop work order on the side of it. The second is a close up of the order.

Picnics

We were able to enjoy the new picnic shelter for the weekend of the 4th of July. The men finished the roof on the 4th and we held a picnic then and again on the 6th. They were both good days and the shelter was nice. In the photo above, Rosa and Allen Blooflat get ready to eat.
And here, Joan Bickish and Jenny Wood look on as Scott Harley places his order for a hamburger to Pastor Bickish.

Picnic Shelter

And here is a photo of the shelter at the end of the workday. Next week, the shingles will be delivered. Then, it will be complete. All we'll need is tables. The plan at this point is a picnic and camping on the 4th of July.

Busy, Busy, Busy

It is about noon on June 13 right now and this is the third post in the last 24 hours, so scroll down. There's plenty to see and read. Besides putting the roof on our picnic shelter, we were able to get some work done on the well, and the hole dug for the footer of the church building. Here, Bill Wood works with our excavating contractor to get the dirt work done. A plug for the excavator - if you live in the Soldotna-Kenai area and are looking for a good one, Property Design in Kenai is awesome. He has proven to be worth every penny we are paying him. Here, Chad Harley (bottom) gives Robert Jones a hand with the well.
And Pastor Bickish oversees the excavating. The hole is completely dug and ready to go, we just need to get all our ducks in a row with the fire marshal and we can pour our concrete.

The Lord gave us a beautiful day to work, on June 12. Ten people, plus our excavating contractor, showed up throughout the day. We got a lot done. The beauty of the day is evidenced in this first photo of Bill and Jared Wood and Brian Harley squaring up trusses. Look at that Alaskan sky. In this second photo, the crew takes a break for lunch - our first picnic in the new shelter.
And here is the shelter getting it's roof. After twelve hours, it now has a roof, but no shingles, and it still needs some trim work. We would have a photo of what the shelter looked like at the end of the day, but the camera battery died.

What a Week

God is good -all the time! Early this week, our Pastor called the state fire marshal to find out what we needed to do to keep our building "up to code". The next day, there was a Stop Work Order posted on our sign at the property. This, of course, was the day before we were to dig for the footer, set trusses on the picnic shelter and work on the well.

After checking the work order, and making a phone call to the fire marshal's office, we determined we could still set the trusses and do the well work. We were also able to dig for the foundation, but we are not allowed to actually pour the concrete until we get everything straightened out with him.

So, we would covet your prayers concerning the extra work we need to do, and money we will no doubt need to spend to get things right.

On another note, please pray for the people that we deal with as we do this work. Many of them are receiving a clear presentation of the gospel at least once. We are, of course, praying that the seed will fall on fertile soil, and we will see souls saved even through our building project.

We will post photos of Thursday's workday soon.

Past Photos

The men haven't been able to get out to the property in a couple weeks, so we thought we'd post some photos from fall of 2005, when the clearing and digging began. Since June 17 is soon upon us, we will have new photos to post soon.

The equipment at sunset. Ground-breaking Ceremony:

left to right - Brian Harley, Pastor Nick Bickish and Bill Wood
After the ceremony, the kids got in on the action.

Picnic Shelter - May 24

Being good Baptists, we have started our construction season with a picnic shelter. The logic behind this, of course, is that the workers will need a place to relax and enjoy lunch during workdays. These photos are of our second workday. This first photo is of, from left to right, Robert Jones, Abigail Harley, Pastor Nick Bickish and Bill Wood, putting together a truss.
And since all work, no play, makes Jack a dull boy, we added some fun into the hard labor. Here Chad Harley, Bill Wood, and Abigail Harley are having a race driving lag bolts with impact wrenches.

The trusses are ready to go on the walls now. Hopefully, within a couple of weeks we will be able to rent the equipment to get them up there.