Progress Report

Have you ever been consumed by a particular person, or problem, or project? This one thing -- whatever it is -- becomes the primary subject of your conversations, your correspondance, your daily activities, your dreams... your blog... Do you know what I'm talking about? Surely, everyone has experienced such a phenomenon!

At least I know that I have.

Especially lately, as much as I'd like to be able to say that I've been consumed by a passionate love for God, or for my wife, or for my children... The truth of the matter is that I've been more or less consumed by our church's recent process of relocation over these past several weeks. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Or perhaps simply a necessary evil? I don't know... In some ways, it's kind of fun and exciting. But in other ways, it produces awkwardness and anxiety and arguments -- to the point where I find myself simply looking forward to the end.

The end, however, is still a ways off in the distance. For better or for worse, we're basically just getting started. I'm encouraged, at any rate, with how well and how quickly things seem to be progressing. As you'll see from the pictures below, the renovations on the Herengracht 88 are moving right along...



They started in on the children's ministry space today (which was formerly a locker room). It's hard to get a decent picture that shows the whole space, but at least you can see more of the space now that they've got a wall out of the way! I'm impressed with how quickly they're working...



Above, you can see a picture of the kitchen. We probably won't make too many changes to this space for the time being, as it should be adequate for all of our current needs...



I think the space pictured above really takes a bit of imagination. Functionally, we're hoping that this space can fill some of the same roles as the old "orange room" of the Zolder. They still need to yank out some of the risers that were used by the yoga/meditation center, and a new coat of paint will definitely be needed to reduce some of the ocean effect. But I think there's some potential...



Comparing the picture above with the picture from last Thursday of the same space, you can see how things have opened up nicely. I'm still hoping that we'll be able to get rid of the salmon color on the pillars and the flourescent bank lights on the ceilings, but we're off to a good start.