Welcome, Banner, and Clean up

Well, we have our banner up. As such I hope you're a new reader to this blog about the Cleary Activities and Recreation Center (ARC). We will be making updates regularly regarding the progress of construction as well as planned activities, events, goings on, and anything else we can think of here at the ARC. If you have any questions about it please feel free to contact me. I encourage you to visit Cleary's website and if you're Youth oriented, Kevin Wade, the Associate Pastor for Youth and Activities, has a website, S.O.S. and a blog.

Several folks showed up today for a general clean up day. There was a bunch of cleaning going on. I worked for a bit in the Upper Room Cafe. That is going to be a really hot spot for The Youth! The carpet is not yet installed in that room. I believe it will be done next week.

The A/V Team is putting forth a proposal tomorrow to purchase and install a dual projector system for the Upper Room Cafe. In that room there will be a dual projector system, several intelligent lights, a smoking sound system, a large equipment room, and "the cafe". I have not seen the plans for the layout of the cafe; however, it looks like there will be plenty of seating as you'd expect in a cafe as well as a bar, non-alcoholic, of course!

There are several things left to do in order to open the doors: carpet in The Youth room, finish a few doors, touch up painting, finish the restrooms, and a few electrical loose ends.

All in all, God is so good! It is amazing so much has been done by so few in such a short time! Once again, thanks to God for using Eckels Evans, Newt Roberts, Roscoe Singletary, the contractors, all the volunteers, and whomever else has had a hand in building this ARC!

6 Days, Carpet, Lights

I had lunch with Bro. Kevin today. Things are rapidly coming together. He had just come from meeting with the electrician to choose the track lighting for the Upper Room Cafe. That should be installed shortly.

Eck called Kevin today and asked if he could get some of the Youth to come and help prepare the floor for laying carpet tomorrow.

We are really getting down to the final parts of this building. God is so good! Thank you Eck and Kevin for letting God use you guys so much!

9 Days, Upper Room Cafe, Gym Floor

Only 9 more days until we are scheduled to open the doors. Things have appeard to go smoothly. I pray God bless Eckels Evans, Newt Robertson, all the crew and and all the others that have worked tirelessly to get us this far. God is good!

Kevin told me today the ceiling tiles are installed in the Upper Room Cafe. Those tiles will be painted. That should complete the ceiling of the Cafe.

It appears as though the gym floor will not be in place for the opening of the ARC. There are some issues that must be resolved with the roof of the building that have precluded us from beginning to install the floor. Those issues are being addressed. As soon as they are resolved I am certain the floor will be installed.

The excitement is here!

As we near completion of the ARC, I can't even begin to explain the excitement within my soul. What's so exciting you might ask? Is it the fact that we're going to have an amazing gym where hundreds of children, youth, and adults will come together and experience the love of Christ? Is it the new mega kitchen and dinning hall where hundreds of people will not only find the physical food we all require, but the food of the Spirit that changes lives? Is it the new classroom space where many who simply have no real place to call home in our church find the hope of a church family? Is it that I know we’ll have the largest youth worship center possibly in the state that will draw hundreds of teenagers? Is it that the cafe inside our youth worship center will serve hundreds of teenagers a drink of hot coffee while building Christian relationships? Is it just that the building and everything in it is simply unbelievable?

I'd have to say it's real simple. My excitement comes only because of just one; just one child, one teenager, or one adult who because of these awesome things will come to know my Savior Jesus Christ and the hope that only He can bring. Just one is worth all the money, sweat, and tears! Just one brings me the excitement that I can’t even begin to explain within my soul, however I'm convinced there will not only be just one, but hundreds! There are great days ahead for the kingdom and Cleary Baptist Church. I want to challenge you to look through each picture posted here and dream with me of how we can tell the world that Jesus lives through what He has given us!

Ceiling Tiles, Steps, Kitchen Equipment

We have a slideshow with new pictures of the progress that has been made. You will see many of the ceiling tiles and lights have been installed. In the long hall above the gym and in the youth room they are working on the grid for the tile and lights.

In one picture you will note the steps going to the upper parking deck in front of the ARC has been poured and is curing. These steps will be covered by the awning that will protect folks from weather in front of the ARC.

You will also see several shots of equipment in the kitchen. The kitchen is going to be an awesome thing. I suspect that it will be used quite a bit! I, for one, am looking forward to that!

12 Days, Lights and a Drive Through

The framework for the awning over the drive and up the stairs has been erected. Shortly the skin will be attached and I will be able to drop my wife and child off at the ARC without fear of them getting wet!

The electric company has also installed lighting on the electricity poles around the parking lot. I have not been by after hours to see if they are indeed hooked into the grid. I shall do so and report on that shortly.

I will bring an update on the gym floor tomorrow.

14 Days, Preparing the Floor

Here you can see the kit we have for testing the moisture that is still in the concrete. The concrete must be dry to a certain point before we can install the SportGrain Plus gym floor. Here is how this kit works:

When ready to check the moisture in the concrete, weigh the dish that contains the white pellets (left) and record that weight on the lid.

Seal the dish in with the plastic container while the dish is on the concrete.

After a specified period, reweigh the contents of the dish and record that weight on the lid. A calculation based on the difference in beginning and ending weight will tell how much moisture the concrete still holds. As a geek, I find this to be a very cool method for determining the amount of water left in the slab.

When we get the results I will post them here. When the concrete is ready, the floor should start going down!

God is good!

The Gym Floor

We are preparing to put in the gym floor. We are installing a product from Sport Court called SportGrain Plus. If you are interested you may read about this very cool product. In a nutshell it is a multi-layer sheet good that looks like a traditional gym floor.

From the literature:

Combine the advantates of cushioned vinyl with the look of natural wood and you get a multi-purpose flor that is as easy to care for as it is aesthetically pleasing. This floor comes in eight color options and several thicknesses.

We are getting the maple surface pattern. I believe we are going with a thickness of 7.65mm.

18 Days, A/C, Landscaping,

Only 18 more days before Cleary's ARC opens! Stopping in today I could see many advances. The air conditioning was turned on and running. The upper floor was not as warm even on this near 100 degree day. I took several photos today which I will add to Flickr tomorrow. You will see the checkerboard tile in the Upper Room Cafe. Very cool with a wavy wall.

The was quite a bit of the grid work complete for the hanging tile ceiling all over the building. Some of that ceiling was installed in places while other rooms had the lights in place but not the ceiling tiles.

In the front of the building the forms for the steps from the upper parking strip are in place and landscaping has been laid.

24 Days, Inspections, Power

In just over three weeks we will be opening the doors to the ARC. With that little bit of time left Eck and his crew are really working hard. The inspectors came and gave a thumbs up to the electrical inspection. The paperwork has been submitted and should be filed shortly. We are hoping to turn on power tomorrow.

God is so good to Cleary Baptist Church.

26 Days, Paint, Lights, A/C, Banner

With 26 days left before launching the ARC I have several things to report.

The inside of the building is largely painted. While there may be a few things to touch up most of the paint is on the wall and dry. This allows us to begin hanging the grid work for the lights. That is the next thing going up.

Later this week the air conditioning will be finished up and turned on. We need to have the A/C on for several days to remove the humidity in order for the gym floor installation to begin. It is looking like the gym floor is one of the final pieces to the puzzle.

We have a banner that will be hung outside telling all about this blog. If you are a guest reading for the first time because of the banner, "Welcome!" And thank you for stopping in. If you have any questions, please feel free to drop a line. You can also visit our church website at http://clearybaptist.org.