A look back.

No, this is not a new construction picture. Rather, it's an early picture Mount Olive, taken with the whole congregation in front of the building. I believe that this one was from the late 1920's, when the congregation was trying to find money to build what would become our current sanctuary. At that time, the life of the congregation was contained in the basement of this structure. Remember that finances were tough in that era, yet the church moved forward with faith that they would be able to raise the necessary funds. Sounds like a familiar scenario, right? We are again reaching a point where we'll be asking for support for some items that weren't budgeted in our current plan. We will be re-using many pieces of furniture, shelving, desks, etc. Carol Austermann has generously offered her time to reupholster, among other things, the benches from the Chapel Lounge to be put into the new hospitality space. The red couches will be used for the staff offices. But we'll still need some new pieces for the hospitality space, the chapel lounge and staff offices. Watch for news about how you can help.
There are no new pictures this week. I decided that even though there is progress, most people wouldn't be too interested in pictures of plumbing pipes now coming out of the floors in the bathrooms. The most visually exciting thing, at least from my point of view, are the new windows on two sides of the building. The new office spaces have all new windows, and the east assembly room now has two clear windows looking out the back of the building. Just perfect for natural light on sunny mornings! If you stand in the right places, you can see all the way from the Chicago Avenue side, through the chapel lounge and out the other side of the EAR.