I Came, I Sawed, I Hammered

"I came, I saw, I conquered"
    - Julius Caesar (47 BC, after defeating Pharnaces II of Pontus)

"I came, I sawed, I hammered"
    - Kevin Thomas (2010 AD, surveying his first day's handiwork)

  I just got home an hour ago from my first day of volunteering with construction work at Willingdon. Two days ago, in thinking about the current state of affairs in which I find myself, I decided to take the initiative to change all that. I had made up my mind that I wanted to pour all the energy I had into serving and loving other people as much as I could during this Christmas. Remembering that Willingdon needed volunteers to help with constructing the massive set for their upcoming Christmas production, I went down to the church and told the crew already working that I wanted to help. Below is a photo of the work that was underway when I signed up:

Willingdon's main foyer

Yesterday's construction

  So today afternoon, I went in to Willingdon's main sanctuary wearing my most ragged and worn out clothes possible and tried to help. I use the word 'tried', as I'm pretty much a construction ignoramus among the rest of the people there. I'm not really one of those chaps you'd find on an episode of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" or a similar show, strutting around with tools and all that.

  Anyhow, I got assigned to nail down part of the stage, so I got myself a cordless electric screwdriver and spent the next hour or so on my knees doing that. After that, I helped cut up stryrofoam, and use it to construct a mock fireplace. And finally, I am proud to say that I painted walls for the first time in my life with a paint roller and a bucket of green paint. In fact, here's a photo of the area of the set I painted, the fireplace prop I helped build and the set at the end of today's stint. :)

Yes! I actually painted all of that!

And helped build that!

Set at the end of Day 3

  So what made all of this so cool? I found out that manual labour is very satisfying, in surveying my handiwork at the end of a hard day's work. Sure, I've done the occasional stuff here and there, but not at a stretch like this. I was exhausted, with paint spots on my hands, jeans and shoes. But I was happy. I wonder if that's what God felt at the end of His creation spree in the book of Genesis...

  Hard work never killed anybody. I've always known that, but I'm learning that in a different kind of "hard" way. And I like it. In fact, I'd like to think that by the end of next week, I won't be too bad at it, if I do say so myself! I'm looking forward to tomorrow :)

  By the way, Willingdon's Christmas production is presented by its very own Starlight Theatre, and is called "The Christmas Party". You can find details of it on the main Willingdon site here, and buy tickets at Ticketweb. Come and have a look!

                               - The Wisdom Seeker