Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you all, our blog followers! We trust you will have a great Christmas wherever you are in the world.

Last night we had our 2nd Annual Christmas party here in our new building. We had 56 men, women, and children come out!! We were pretty excited to see all the people here in our new building. Aside from playing some games and enjoying some Christmas treats, I gave a short gospel challenge as well! Please pray for some of those folks to come out to the church services in the weeks to come!

First service!

Thank you for praying. God answered SO MANY prayers to bring us to this point and He deserves all the glory. Our first service in the new building went well. We had 15 people in attendance including our family! I preached out of Psalm 127:1a Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it:. I brought out the point that without the LORD's help this building would not have been possible. I could have tried my hardest to get all the work done, but would certainly have fallen short. I then likened that to the fact that we cannot do anything to gain salvation; it is only through Jesus who was born to die.

Leading singing with my guitar!

Look what the LORD has done!

The completed Sanctuary, ready for our FIRST service tonight!!!

Becky and I cleaning up the Sanctuary.

The completed entry-way for the church.

David Parker, the last of our work crew, building a coat-rack and shelf.

Sanding the new pulpit!

Plumbing the kitchen sink (my least favourite of the trades). After multiple attempts, I finally got the leaks stopped!

We're in!!

Hello everyone. Sorry I haven't posted in a while. As of December 1 we are now into the house part of the new building!! GLORY TO GOD! We are still working on the downstairs part and plan to have the first service THIS Sunday!!
David Parker from England/Manitoba is still here and has been such a help with the finishing work.
Things were a bit eventful this morning. Due to the cold temperatures our sewer line froze up and flooded the downstairs bathroom a bit. Thank the LORD there was no damage (only water to mop up) and were were able to get a plumber to come and thaw it out with high-pressure hot water. We still are waiting on the phone company to install our phone line and have a been waiting 3+ weeks. PLEASE PRAY that they will get working on this soon. Thank you again for all your prayers and support!

Becky and I in our new living room!

Dining room.

Hallway.

Progress, progress, progress!

Some views of our beautiful kitchen! It is really so much nicer than we would ever have imagined it to be. We praise the Lord for His provision and for the generous people who have made this possible. Most of the second floor is completed and we have about 1/2 of our "stuff" moved over. We will move the rest tomorrow and Thursday and plan to stay overnight for the first time on Thursday!

The pantry, with the fabulous shelving built by David Parker. David has volunteered to stay an extra week to help us finish the downstairs of the building. LORD willing, our first service in the new Sanctuary will be on December 12!

Much work being accomplished!

Juan Friesen rolling down the vinyl plank flooring.

Working on the kitchen cabinets.

My little qamutiik (ka-mu-teek) loaded down with garbage for the dump.

Becky's father applying the glue for the shower walls.

Flooring started!

Some of the assembled cabinets!


David Parker assembling the kitchen cabinets!


The vinyl plank flooring upstairs is ALL completed thanks to a great job by Juan Friesen and David Parker!

Meanwhile I continue to paint, paint, paint! Unfortunately Becky's parents did not make it in yesterday, so Lord willing they will be in tomorrow! We are still on schedule to move next week! Please keep praying about that! THANK YOU!

Painting time!

A few painting pictures... All the priming is done and the ceiling on the second floor is done as well. I have the first coat of paint on the ceiling downstairs as well. On the second floor I have the first coat of that light tan paint in the hallway, dining room, living room and kitchen. It is looking really good (if I do say so myself). Hopefully Becky can get over to take a peek at it tomorrow.

If you hadn't heard ALL the paint was donated for this project!!

We also just found out that the men coming to help with the flooring and cabinets are coming on Monday, the 22nd - the same day as Becky's parents arrive to visit and to help us move. Please pray for good travelling weather!

Priming pictures

Jason made it out today!

Hayleigh came for a visit this morning.

Finishing the meeting room!

Looking into the kitchen...Those green and white boxes are the joint compound. We shipped a little too much as you can see.

Weather delay...again

We woke up this morning to a snow storm with some blowing snow. With weather like that the visisbility is greatly reduced so most planes are unable to land. Unfortunately for Jason, his flight back to Winnipeg was cancelled. On the up-side that delay allowed us to get a good deal of the primer on the walls. In fact the entire second floor is primed and a portion of downstairs as well! The weather looks good for tomorrow, so LORD willing Jason will fly out around 9 AM! Meanwhile, I will be priming in the morning and then take the afternoon off to do some studying and other ministry related work.

Sanding mostly done!!!

The sanding of the walls is 99.5% completed. We have a few small portions that are still drying and those should be dry by tomorrow. Since Jason does not leave until Wednesday, he is going to help me get started on the painting! That is quite a big job which I thought I would have to do mostly by myself; it will be a blessing to have help.

Furiously sanding!

Jason, sanding on his stilts!

The view out of our living room window! (It's a bit blurry because of the condensation on the window)

Taping and mudding completed!

The taping and mudding is going along well. In fact all the taping is completed on both floors and the second floor is about 80% sanded! Lord willing on Monday we will complete most of the sanding and the plan is to try and get some of the priming done on the walls on Tuesday. Jason Hiebert is scheduled to fly out of Rankin on Wednesday. We are so thankful to the Lord for Jason lending us his expertise for the last week; so much has been acomplished.

Working through the blizzard

Currently we are in the midst of a fierce blizzard. The winds are 70km/h with 90 km/h gusts, but that has not stopped Jason and I from working inside. Aside from a few outside corners where the first coat isn't completely dry, the second coat of mud is DONE!! It is looking really good, and we can really start to see how it will look when finished. For all you guys that had a part working on the outside of the building...it is doing WELL in it's first blizzard and we have had no problem with loose cladding or anything!

This past Monday we put in our 30 day notice to our property manager for the apartment we now rent. It was a step of faith...but it seems that most of the work will be done enough for us to move in and avoid paying rent in December. Our property manager is willing to give us an extra day or two more if needed. PLEASE continue to pray that all will go well, and that we can acomplish the work we need to in order to move in!

First coat applied

Jason Hiebert arrived as scheduled on Friday, September 29. We were able to get a good headstart into taping the upstairs that afternoon. Then on Saturday we were able to complete all the taping and the first coat of mud on the second floor of the building! Things are moving along nicely and we hope to have the the joints taped and the first coat of mud on the first floor walls by Tuesday afternoon.

Jason and Nathan working on a corner.

This Friday

Friday, October 29th, is going to be an exciting day! Jason Hiebert from Manitoba is flying up to do the taping and mud work on our building. It will be such a blessing to have HIM heading up the task, with me assisting, since I have LITTLE experience at all and he is an expert. Not only will the taping and mudding begin but October 29th is also our oldest daughter Hayleigh's, 5th birthday! We are planning a party for all her little friends and it should be a fun and busy time! It is hard to believe that Hayleigh will be 5, and that she has celebrated 4 birthdays here in Rankin Inlet.

Please pray for me as I sprained my knee last night while helping with the local boys basketball team. It is pretty sore and inhibiting me from doing much manual labour on my feet.

Please also pray for GOOD weather for Jason's flight. It has been snowing on and off for about 10 days now and the forecast is for that to continue.

More work done and a miracle...

More work has been accomplished on the building here! The past 5 days our electrician Frank Kelly has been in town and we have been able to get all the switches in, some temporary lighting in most of the rooms and hallways as well, and the toilet in the upstairs bathroom.

Frank was supposed to leave on Monday, but a half hour before his flight left a fog rolled in and First Air canceled the flight, so he got bumped to Wednesday (since the flight to Yellowknife, NWT is only Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). Today we woke up and it was cloudy but no fog!! Well wouldn*t you know it, about an hour and a half before his plane was to land in Rankin...more fog rolled in off the Bay. It would lift a bit and then sink down to about 400 meters visibility (not enough for the jet to land). So I REALLY began to pray that God would allow him to get out of town. He has a trip to Ireland planned for early next week and a lot of work to do before he leaves, so he REALLY needed to get home to Yk tonight. The fog kept lifting a bit giving us a ray of hope, but then 10 minutes later it would settle back in limiting the visibility. Time dragged by at the airport and we kept waiting for the announcement that the flight was cancelled...but we heard nothing. We continued waiting thinking that there still must be a chance the plane could land. We finally stopped one of the First Air agents and asked if the flight was officially cancelled. He looked at us rather surprised saying yes, the flight just flew over and that they must have just forgotten to make the announcement. Crestfallen we made our way to the ticket counter to have him rebooked yet again...this time for Friday. It looked like our prayers had not been answered. Well, that is when God stepped in... Just as they were about to rebook him, one of the ticket agents said there was a SLIGHT possibility he and the other passengers could get on ANOTHER First Air plane. We were a bit surprised since it seemed the fog was so thick and no plane could land. There just *happened* to be a First Air charter flight that terminated in Rankin Inlet, and just *happened* to be flying to Yellowknife...EMPTY!!! It was already sitting on the pad being prepped for departure. GOD HAD ANSWERED MY PRAYERS! We serve a BIG God who can do anything...even allow a turbo-prop plane to take off from a distant mining camp in time to land in thick fog, so one of his faithful, hard-working volunteers can get home to his wife and in time for his trip to visit is aging mother in Ireland. WOW! There is really NO WAY to describe how amazing this is but our Mighty God working. This might seem like a small thing to those used to flying in the south, but when one is isolated in small, fly-in ONLY communities weather is a huge factor that cancels about 10% of the flights per year. To get out of town when all seemed hopeless, in a plane that usually wasn*t there at that time, is an amazing MIRACLE. PRAISE THE LORD for answering our prayers.

Alayna and Frank reading on the couch.

Some necessary improvements...

Sanctuary

The Sanctuary drywall has been completed for awhile, but I finally cleaned it up enough to get a decent picture! We estimate it will seat about 40-50 people!

First snow

The night before last we got our first snow of the winter. It was only a dusting, but also a warning that more is on the way, and sooner than we'd like. Below are some views, out of our new windows, of the recent snowfall.

Some more things completed

We have been able to get some more things completed over the last week or so. All the drywall except for ONE piece is up! Praise the LORD! ALSO...the heat is on and it is heating well! Our nightime temps are hovering near freezing so we are so thankful to have the heat on. We want to say a special "thank you" to Ryan Wall for all his help getting the heat working this past Friday.

Our looooong boiler chimney.

My father leaving

Installing the "bubble foil" insulation for the in-floor hydronic heating. Notice the beam and post in the church meeting room.

Tomorrow is a day of mixed emotions. My father, who has been here for about 2 weeks, will be leaving, and then Ryan Wall and Randy Hildebrand will be arriving for a quick few days to help finish the heating and drywall. My father and I got ALL the walls downstairs drywalled and MOST of the ceiling in the large church meeting room. We plan to finish the ceiling tomorrow. We praise the LORD for all the work and for the strength to accomplish it!



Thanks again for your prayers!

Moving on...

The west side of the building, now completed!!

Finishing the gable.

Drywalling the downstairs bathroom. Most of the downstairs in now drywalled!

A rainy day on the job.

Today was rainy and cool all day. Thank God the outside work is mostly done. My father and I spent all day framing and drywalling around the duct work.

The front, rear and side completed!

Drywalling around the heating duct work.

PLEASE PRAY FOR:

• Protection for the building. Last night someone got into the building and stole a cordless drill and large pack of granola bars. We are so thankful to the LORD that they did not do any damage to the building itself. They had to be a bit resourceful to get in by using a ladder to get on top of the boiler shed to reach the emergency exit door which I had forgotten to lock from the inside.
  
• Fuel for the boiler to be piped in so we can fire up the boiler (and the heat)! Temperatures at night are still above freezing, but soon they will be below and we have already filled all the water pipes in the house.
  
• Continued safety for the work being done.
  
  

Some more drywalling completed!

It was another good day of work here in Rankin Inlet. We were able to get quite a bit more drywalling done downstairs. We also had a surprise volunteer come to help. Ruel is a Filipino man that lives in Rankin Inlet, and attends our church with some other Filipinos. (See him on the right in the picture above with my father.) He stopped by for a few hours this afternoon and helped my father and I drywall. I was also able to get all the thermostat wires organized and run to the proper locations. With five different "stats" and two different heating systems, it was a bit challenging.

We also heard today that Randy Hildebrand and Ryan Wall will be returning for a few days to do some additional work on the in-floor hydronic heating. We are so thankful to the LORD for their kindness and help!

Two weeks have gone by

It is hard to believe that two weeks has gone by already! The first five men that arrived on September 4 will leave tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM. We have gotten SO much accomplished, and we praise the LORD for the hard work that has been put in by the work crew. We put in some 12-14 hour days, and worked despite the wind, fog, and rain. We want to say THANK YOU to all the men and women who have helped us in this project. Though there is much left to do before completion, God has blessed immensely and allowed us to get a majority of the work done.

Final supper with the crew.

Colton finishing some work on the cladding.

My father, Richard Jones, just arrived in Rankin Inlet and VERY happy to see his granddaughter Hayleigh!!

We will continue to update this blog...so keep coming back to see more!

Upstairs drywall complete!

Yesterday morning we had Pancakes, Bacon, and Eggs for breakfast. Here the guys are enjoying the mountain of bacon!

ALL THE DRYWALL IS UP ON THE SECOND FLOOR!!

Despite the foggy weather, Crystal Schreiner was able to fly out today. Please pray for good weather tomorrow as my father, Richard Jones, flies in and Bernie Dueck flies out. Also please pray for good weather on Saturday morning as the rest of the crew flies out as well.