The New Eagle Mountain Tabernacle passed final inspection by the county on June 22, just days before the start of our first summer camp. The entire project, including demolition and removal of the old building, took just 190 days, which is a testimony to God's goodness.
The ministry team here at Camp Maranatha is very excited about this new building and we are looking forward to seeing how God is going to use it in the coming years.
We are so grateful for all of you who volunteered in the construction of the new tabernacle, and also for those who helped support the work through giving. Camp Maranatha has been tremendously blessed by so many who have invested themselves so generously in the ministry at Maranatha.
Come on in through the main double doors and have a look around the room. Hopefully, over the winter, we will construct some sort of portable staging.
Care was taken during the construction phase of the project to preserve some of the natural features, including boulders and trees, that surround the building. This video also gives you a good look at the sidewalk which runs around three sides of the building as well as the porches that cover the side entrances.
Unlike the old building, which had only two entrances, the new building has five. Just off to the side of the main double doors is a side entrance which leads into a small lobby area. This will be great for heat retention during the winter and will represent less of a distraction than opening and closing the big double doors. Also a graceful sidewalk now connects the tabernacle to the Oak Lodge, which is a big help for some of our less mobile guests.
After hanging all of the sheet-rock they did all the taping and mudding
At this time all of the windows and doors have been installed.
Then they came and textured the sheet-rock. The next step for the interior walls is to paint them. Otherwise, this is how the inside of the building is going to look.
Gutters and rain spouts have been installed.
With everything on Keith's plate he decided to hire a couple of guys to help him with the building. Danny (left) is a local guy and, of course, Dutch (right) is no stranger to most of you as he has been a fixture here at camp for a long time. We are grateful to both of them for helping out.
At this time the roofs over all of the entryways are nearing completion. I think they look pretty sharp.
We have been blessed by so many volunteers coming up on the weekends to help with the building. For the past two weekends we have had serveral families join us here at camp to lend a hand.
Here's Larissa, Keith's daughter, painting the pieces of trim that will eventually cris-cross the exterior of the building.
The dark brown compliments the cream-colored paint handsomely and lends a nice, finished look to the building.
The main doors have been installed and now the buildeing is almost completely closed up. I was very impressed that the doors open and close so quietly- they're as quiet as a cloud, and even though they are really heavy they are not hard to open at all.
All of the doors have been installed, and eventually they will all be painted a dark brown to match the exterior trim.
Lots has been happening up at the work site. The building is now completely roofed and the all of the sheet rock has been hung. Now that the roof is on I'll have to stop calling it a work site as it feels more like a building now.
The sheet rock guys were amazing. They hung that sheet rock with the speed and intensity of a nascar pit crew, and they maintained that pace all day. They managed to hang all of the sheetrock in one day. I was impressed.
The night before the sheetrock guys came I saw these switches on the wall and wondered if they worked. Out of curiosity I flicked a few switches and was rewarded by the lights overhead coming on.
Wow!
It's really coming together, huh? The sheet rock guys are going to return this Saturday to tape and texture. I'll try to get some good action shots of that for you.
Keith is looking into possibly buying a scissor lift like one of these. How else would we change the light bullbs? I'm not climbing a ladder up there!!!
I apologize for letting so much time slip by between updates. Thanks to God for all that has been completed up at the building site. In summary, the steel supports have arrived and been installed. Much of the roof and insulation has been installed and a lot of progress has been made on hanging the sheets of fiberboard on the exterior of the building.
They brought in this crane to lift and move all of the heavy steel.
That's a lot of steel dangling overhead, hardhat-shmardhat! If that sucker comes down, you better be right with the Lord!
Keith has fallen in love with this lift I think. The contractor has kindly allowed us the use of it after his guys are done with it for the day, and Keith has been busily using it to cut dead limbs throughout the camp as well as hanging fiberboard to the outside of the building.
It seems much bigger in person with all of the wall panels in place. It's going to be a really big space.
They got all of the steel pieces up.
These wire straps are what hold the insulation up under the sheets of roofing.
Here's what it looks like with the insulation installed
Before the building is completed there will be porches and walkways on the side of the building. Keith has been constructing the porches in the maintenance building, and here you can see he's already installed a part of it to the side of the building over the door.
I'll try and get you another update soon.