Barry and Brodie have completed installing the cast iron and pressure-testing the plumbing: now it’s up to the folks from Hillcrest Plumbing to do the finishing touches and for the City inspector to come around and give it the final seal of approval. We’re expecting that to happen this week – Hallelujah!
The next big job is the walling-in of the shower units, but before that can happen, we need to clean out the building waste and other accumulated junk (anyone want a kitchen range – many ranges have cooktops, ovens, grill, rotisserie, and are self-cleaning … but do you know any that come complete with baby rats? I think NOT!).
This past Saturday, we were blessed to meet some young people from a Mennonite church in Abbotsford (through all the introductions, I never caught the name of their church). Susan and Shawna (sp?), Jason and Jason (that’s right: “Hi … I’m Larry … this is my brother, Jason, and this is my other brother, Jason”) came to help at Gospel Mission’s Easter Saturday dinner, bringing lots of ham and other good stuff and helping serve. They’ve also expressed interest in helping out with the Lord’s Rain, so you may well meet them on the 29th. This is all in preparation for another work blitz from the Oasis in Duncan, tentatively set for the following Saturday, April 5.
One of the key points about the story of The Lord's Rain is that it’s not really about giving people a chance to clean up. It's turned out to be a vehicle for breakthrough on a number of levels. Many people who have come in to help have been seeing breakthroughs of their own, and have found a new perspective from helping with this. The symbolism of providing a basic human need – like Jesus’ washing the feet of the disciples, or the “cup of cold water”, as one of the Jasons put it yesterday (Matt. 10:42 “And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward”(KJV)) – is a tangible, long-lasting service to others that says “I care” and “you are not forgotten or written-off”. And being involved with the myriad aspects to make this project work helps the helper as much as the helped. Providing funding has been one thing, but people have also stepped forward to offer their gifts – sometimes skills and labor, sometimes ideas, sometimes saying, “I want to be part of this: what can I do?”.
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