The Narrow Gate: Day 368 - Fathers and Sons II

The Narrow Gate

Welcome to the continuation of my blog, post-seminary. Ministry and evangelism have brought me back home to Chattanooga. I welcome your company on my journey.

The original blog, Down In Mississippi, shared stories from 2008 and 2009 of the hope and determination of people in the face of disaster wrought by the hurricanes Rita and Katrina in 2005, of work done primarily by volunteers from churches across America and with financial support of many aid agencies and private donations and the Church. My Mississippi posts really ended with the post of August 16, 2009. Much work, especially for the neediest, remained undone after the denominational church pulled out. Such is the nature of institutions. The world still needs your hands for a hand up. I commend to you my seven stories, Down in Mississippi I -VII, at the bottom of this page and the blog posts. They describe an experience of grace.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Day 368 - Fathers and Sons II

Hezekiah, Ruth and Samuel obtained their certificate of occupancy yesterday! (See day 210) The last little bit of work took almost three weeks, complete plumbing, install cabinets, finish trim... We were fortunate to have three crews from Bayside PC in New York finishing the remaining items on the punch list. We still have some cosmetic trim work to do, and refinish the floors, but the house can be lived in with the certificate of occupancy..

It seemed the closer we got, the slower the work went. I drove by last Friday to see if the house passed inspection but no one was there. I went back Monday afternoon and found all three of them there. Samuel and Ruth were working on the flower beds, resetting the brick border, planting hydranga and other shrub and Hezekiah was in the housepainting trim molding.

The inspector had come out and found a couple of small items. The mechanical contractor had not filled gaps between the air handler and ceiling, and the gap around the condensor lines in the outside wall with fireproof caulk. Hezekiah went ahead and fixed those and yesterday morning early I called the code and inspection office for a revisit.

The call from my work site manager came about 2:30PM - they passed. What a relief! The last I heard Samuel was sanding the oak floors with a sander we rented for him.

We have put a lot of people back in their homes and the joy I share with the happy home owner is always the same. I feel satisfaction, relief, pressure to get onto the next house before we leave..a potpourri of conflicting emotions that bleed over into my whole life.

I know I'll be working hard in Pearlington in a couple weeks and soon thereafter, on to seminary. I will not get to see what Ruth's home looks like when it is fully replanted. Unless I come back.

If I do, I wonder what it will feel like to drive into town knowing the Village is gone and see a blue roof. I imagine my first urge will be to drive back to that Village and get my record book to visit the house...

Six month can seem like a long time. It is time enough to develop close friendship but too brief a time to enjoy it fully. A year is hardly long enough.

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Gates

The gate pervades the Good News. Peter entered the temple gate after the Jesus’ arrest to deny him. Poor Lazarus lay at the rich man's gate, longing for the crumb's from the table, while dogs licked his sores. The blind, lame and paralyzed lay at the Sheep Gate at the Jerusalem temple waiting at the pool with five porticoes for healing water. Jesus warned of the easy road and wide gate to material ease and spiritual destruction and calls us to the hard road and narrow gate to the waters of life.

necessary disclaimer

This blog is created solely to communicate to my brothers and sisters how one person sees adversity bringing out the greater character of humanity. It's early part relating connection to the volunteer relief effort in Mississippi after Katrina and later work with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Program and the Presbyterian Church(USA) is solely through my participation in them; this blog does not carry any sponsorship from these fine organizations or purport to speak for them. All original content is that of the writer who holds the copyright to all original writings and art or other works (See Creative Commons License above). Every effort is made to identify content from other sources which have been obtained from open internet sources. It's more recent content contains sermons and lessons used in preaching and teaching. The url to scripture are obtained via http://bible.oremus.org unless otherwise indicated.

Texts quoted from oremus bible viewer are from "New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved." and "New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved."