WARNING--LONG POST WITH A LOT OF PICTURES
Now that that disclaimer is out of the way, you may read at your own risk. I always feel bad about writing these massively long posts with tons of pictures because I forgot to update sooner. However, it doesn't make sense to break them up into multiple smaller posts.
Since we have been here in NY nearly a year, I thought it fitting to post about all of the changes that have occurred at the church here in Granville. Since being here, we've undertaken quite a few projects at the church. We did a few things outside that I didn't take pictures of, like spread more gravel, take out some dead shrubs, and re-paint the playground equipment.
A few weeks ago, we held a church workday, to rake all of the stones and gravel back after the plowing season, as well as to clean out the front flower beds. They had been let go for several years.
This post will primarily consist of updates done on the inside of the building however. This is just a random photo of a service.
When we started updates, we started with the office of the pastor. You may need to click on this photo to really see the difference. These are the before photos. It was just very very full of stuff and had wallpaper on the walls, and just looked rather cluttered.
Dan and a few men from the church took off the wallpaper, repainted the bookshelves, and cleared out all of the random stuff. It looks much more spacious now.
The lobby was the next area in need of updating. Dan sanded and varnished all of the wood trim in the lobby. We took down this bulletin board since it wasn't being used for anything. It had previously held missionary letters, but we moved those to the auditorium and hung them on the back wall.
We removed this bulky tract table and mirror and replaced it with a small sofa table and a nice mirror. (photo beneath)
It is still big enough to hold tracts without looking cluttered or bulky.
We also got a few small armchairs, a table and lamp for the lobby. There was previously nothing here. Dan also installed the crown molding with the help of a man from church.
These things sure make the lobby more homey and welcoming.
This is what the lobby looks like now.
Another change: The curtains in the auditorium. These long drapes were very nice, but made the whole room quite dark. Also, they had small tears in them, so one of the ladies in the church suggested we replace them. Another lady in the church showed me a photo of some sheer curtains she saw online and asked me what I thought. I said "Go ahead and order them!"
I will say, it took forever to figure out how to hang them, but I think we finally got them looking the way we wanted them.
This was when I was just fiddling with them, trying to figure out how they hang.
They really brighten the place up a TON.
I don't have a before picture of this, but when the men's bathroom upstairs was last painted (years ago), it was painted pink- of all colors. Dan repainted the stalls white and the walls a light brown. It looks much more manly now, I must say. 😀😀😀😀
Another big project Dan took on was to redo the baptistery. The baptistery in general wasn't holding water, so he fixed that first. Then he painted over this mural of the empty tomb. There wasn't anything wrong with it at all, but it was in need of something fresh and updated.
The church already had this big cross sitting in the attic, so Dan mounted that and put backlights behind it.
These lights are remote-controlled and can change color. I took a few photos to give you an idea.
On Easter Sunday, we changed the color to purple and put a sash on it. It is very tasteful. Of course, some of the crazy colors, we don't use. And we don't ever put it on the flashing setting, when the lights flash like Christmas lights. 😀😀😀😀
And this last project was by far the biggest. The fellowship hall downstairs was in need of some repainting. This is what it looked like before...nothing horrible. I've certainly seen worse. But the green made the room dark, and the paneling on the beams bothered Dan a lot (if you look closely, you can see that some of the pieces of paneling are loose).
We started by tearing off all of the paneling. Dan re-wired a few of the electrical things so that he could mud this wall and have it be smooth, rather than look like painted concrete blocks.
After all the paneling was down, Dan mudded the whole thing, and put drywall on the beams, replacing the paneling. I picked the new paint color, a light grey. We had a mini-work day and a few people from the church came and helped us to paint the walls.
We put this painting up, and one of our theme banners (Prayer Changes Everything).
Along with the fellowship hall, Dan also painted the hallways leading down to the fellowship hall, as well as the bannister and trim. He also installed this new carpet on the stairs as the old carpet was worn and had stains in it.
I mentioned in my last post that I was holding my first ladies brunch two Saturdays ago. Well, this is the one and only photo I have from that! It was a nice time. I am planning to hold these ladies events once a quarter. It's important for the ladies in a church to be able to fellowship together and be challenged to be the best women they can be for God. I enjoyed planning it out and making the food for it.
SO there is my long post about the updates at the church. Probably a lot of people would say many of these changes were unnecessary ones. It wasn't like the building was falling down and had to be repaired. Most of these updates are repainting and new furniture or curtains, or a lit cross. I used to be a person with the mentality of "It it's not broke, why fix it?" But since marrying Dan, I can see how that thinking can be detrimental. Dan is a man who, when he goes somewhere, puts a fresh coat of paint on everything, and tries to make everything look sharp and new. His philosophy is that people get excited when they see something fresh and new. At first I thought this was nonsense, but now I tend to agree with him. I had just never thought about it before. Walking into a church that hasn't seen an update or new paint in years and that smells like fake flowers and mothballs, makes me think "Nothing's happened here in years". But walking in and seeing new paint, and smelling a faint smell of new ANYTHING really makes one think "Something's happening here!"
It's a strange thing, I know. And perhaps I'm only changing my view because of Dan. But I really have seen people here start to get excited and start to desire change because they SEE change. Even if that's just a change of color in the fellowship hall. But thankfully, that isn't the only change they see. They also see a church that is seeing visitors come from the community. Things are happening at Calvary Baptist in Granville, and we are so excited about that!
In my next post, I'll show some photos of the updates we've done to the HOUSE! See, exciting things are happening everywhere!!
😀😀😀😀
