Each chalk talk takes a lot of preparation.  First, a basic plan is made.  

Then a rough drawing is made.  This is the rough drawing for … a new one!

Finally, we get to the easel and draw it out.  It generally gets a few minor changes after that.  This is the new chalk talk we created.  It is called… well, we don’t exactly have an official name for it yet.  Its main theme is shepherds, starting with the Christmas shepherds (Luke 2).

 Whenever we have some presentations coming up, preparation time comes.  We have to start by finding a day that works for everyone, and when we can have the basement all to ourselves for a few days.  Preparation makes a lot of dust, so we have to evacuate everything and everyone from the basement and cover what cannot be evacuated.  Generally, we do about four to six backgrounds at the same time.  Once the backgrounds are complete, the blacklight image is drawn in.  This has to be done after dark so that we can see what we are doing.  (That’s not hard to achieve at this time of year: the sun sets at 4 PM.)  When all that is complete (generally about two days after the initial setup), everything gets hair-sprayed to keep the picture from rubbing off or smearing during transport. 

 Oh, and then there is one more step.

The cleanup!

 When it actually comes time to do the presentation, we try to arrive about an hour or two earlier than the official beginning time.  This is to leave time to set up when there aren’t too many people around.  It also leaves time for us to deal with technical difficulties, such as light bulbs breaking or simply not working, wire nuts falling off, outlets that don’t seem to work, bolts missing, easel legs being mixed up, and dimmers breaking in the “off” position.  I’ve probably missed a few, but these have all really happened to us.  In case you are wondering, the dimmer wasn’t too hard to fix: all we had to do was open up our control box, undo half a dozen wire nuts, crack the dimmer casing to open it, unscrew the nut holding it together, find the switch, flip it to the “on” position, and then put it all back together!  This is partly why we always try to have someone praying for each presentation we do.  Of course, the main thing for which to pray is that souls would respond to the message of salvation and turn to the Saviour.

Another important part of our team is Nathanael, our sound technician.  He takes care of all the preparation of background music and sees that the speaker can be appropriately amplified so that all can hear the message, even those who may be somewhat hard of hearing.

After dozens (or even hundreds) of hours of preparation, the final presentation may take only 15 to 30 minutes.  We have found, however, that people remember these presentations for years afterwards, and our prayer is that the message may be received and impact lives for eternity.

    What a busy couple of weeks!  After a brief lull in activity around here, the construction has progressed by leaps and bounds.  The shelter over the north basement doors is now completed.  With the exception of gutter installation, there remains little to do outdoors at this point, so most of the work has been indoors: the finishing!  The wainscotting (wood half-way up the walls) went up very rapidly – it was all up and varnished by Wednesday last week.  Thursday and Saturday were days of work on window frames and mouldings.  One of the young men from our Bible study came over to help us out.  Thank you, Ryan, for your excellent work.  We express much gratitude also to Ryan’s family for sharing your skilled worker!

   The whole look of the place has been drastically altered – it is looking more and more like a room instead of a construction zone.  The bathroom at the back of the room is also progressing.  The walls are plastered, the exterior wall on the side of the original house is also dry walled and plastered, and the wooden ceiling is in place.  The pictures speak for themselves…

Some things require extreme precision…

   The question in many minds now is, “How soon will it be all done so that we can move in?!”  A lot still remains to do, however.  The mouldings around the doors as well as the openings into the original house have yet to be finished.  The flooring will be a massive endeavour, and even after that there are the baseboards, etc.  We continue to dream of the day it will all be finished…

   While all this was taking place in the extension, another project was also underway: fixing up the front door.  Though a beautiful wooden door, it is sorely inadequate at keeping out the cold during the winter.  Nathanael took it all apart, put insulating into it, and put it back up.  We shouldn’t have the problem of frost covered screws next winter!

   Construction/renovation was not the only thing going on this past week.  Mommy, Evelyn, Stephen, Sarah, and William worked on cleaning out the 28-year-old chest freezer in the basement.  It was a formidable task to take everything out, sort it all, clean the freezer all out, and put everything back!

   We have not only been busy at home either.  Friday afternoon was spent at our grandparents’ home helping them with clearing out weeds and repainting the balcony.  It was a wonderful team project – even Amy helped!  We loved doing this for them.

   Sunday was a day of ministering to others at the Grace Christian Home for a service with the Godfreys.  Singing hymns, playing a few pieces on our instruments, listening to Mr. Godfrey present many creative ways of sharing the Gospel, and talking with the residents afterwards was such a delight!

   In all this busyness, I pause to consider a thought: What is the purpose in it all?  We can be busy about many things without knowing where we are heading, or precisely on what we are focused.  Is our focus simply to get something done?  The apostle Paul stated in I Corinthians 10:31, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” (emphasis added)  This is to be our focus: the glory of God, seeking to make Him known in all we say or do.

   “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”  Colossians 3:17