The Days In Between

Saturday and Sunday

I had especially wanted to write about this day but haven't had an opportunity to do so until now.

In the morning, I arranged some things and of course made the previous posts, then I drove on down to the corner of Husband and 12th street in order to work with Dan and a couple of other guys.

I waited for about 15 minutes (not knowing which house it was) and once Dan arrived, went inside with a few other men. The outside of the house looked "normal" for the area, but the inside was all gutted out. The owners were living in the house but trying to remodel it (slowly) at the same time. They had several walls torn out and the living room/ dining area were nearly bare. They spent a while going around showing everyone what they were trying to accomplish (which generally seems to take longer than actually just telling people to start working on something). The whole project needed someone with experience and skill in order to get everyone going in the right direction. I ripped out a few studs from a rotten wall that was getting replaced and then started pulling nails out of the wall where the wooden lath had been before they pulled it out. Before long, a couple of brothers showed up and started to help. They build houses for a living with their father and older brother I believe, one was named Daniel and the other was Christopher and they were very soft spoken but very helpful and knowledgeable and I was glad that they came and sort of took over. Christopher was the oldest and an Architecture student at OSU but Daniel seemed to have more of the practical knowledge, but spent most of the time getting tools, which were scarce. I wished I had my nail bags because even hammers were hard to get. We jacked up part of the second story to get an old 2 x 12 out and to stick up a new beam which would be a better support. Then we took out some studs on the wall separating the kitchen from the dining area and put up another beam across the entire room as a header. In between the times of putting the headers up (when was when my muscle was needed, or so I was told) I put on hangers. There were no nails for the hangers so we put them in with screws, which I wasn't exactly excited about.

All of the walls were out of level and even once we had put the header in, that was measured from the floor up and not level either (or so I surmised from eyeing it) and the owner said that at one point, there was a doorway where we were putting the beam and one side of the doorway was about 90 inches tall and the other was 91, even in that short of a distance!

The project was unfortunately a bit disorganized but I was able to stay and help for a bit, especially with the putting of the beams in. Dan left at about 11:15 and I left at about 12:30. I headed on over to the S ranch to gather a few things, ate at Braums on the way and then gave JD a call and headed on over to his house for some filming.

He is making a film called "Cat Girl" which features his youngest sister, Mary, as Cat Girl, a super-hero. I'm the super-villain, a kid named "GameBoy" who get picked on by bullies at school and decides to try his hand at sports (fails miserably) and after that, turns to video gaming. When beaten at video games by two other kids (Betty and Daniel), this nerdy, wimpy kid, builds a remote control that lets him speed up or slow down things, thus becoming more powerful than could possibly be imagined.

Anyway, we first went to the backyard and started with some shots of me trying to lift these really wimpy weights, shaking and straining and groaning. I did my best to look like I was trying violently to lift them but failing because of wimpiness. Next we headed out to the park for some sports shots, I tried Basketball, throwing the ball smashing against the rim, way over the backboard, or throwing as hard as I could and it flies up in the air and lands in front of me. Then we tried my hand at baseball, which I threw up in the air but it would land behind me, and when I did get a chance to swing, I'd miss, try to hit it on the ground, get mad, throw down the bat etc. Lastly we did football, I'd try to kick it and miss, fall on the ground. I'd try to tackle someone and they wouldn't budge, I'd finally get the ball and promptly get flattened by Will. I think we got some pretty good and funny shots.

Laura and Stephen came walking up while we were filming and the park and joined us. We went back to the house and filmed some scenes with me playing against other gamers. Laura and Abigail were dressed something like twins, with their hair in a pony tail on the side and looking quite ditzy. Stephen looked like some hippie dude, and Will looked very tough and menacing. The mission team showed up soon and we then went to film the "bully scene" with me getting beat up by David and Clay. We went out to 12th street and down to some Action house, the sidwalk went along the road and we had various "actors" going around looking like school-kids with backpacks. Then I went walking along, glancing over my shoulder and at the sky and suddenly run into Clay and David, who grab me and shove me over to the wall saying something about me being a little punk, rip off my backpack and take Charlie Horse out of it, with me whining "give it back!"

We tried several different takes, the hilarious thing though (and this was the highlight of the day) was that after a while of filming and we were waiting around for David to come back, I and Charlie Horse were doing a "behind the scenes" short clip, I noticed a police car pull up and I said something. He walks up to us (I've got this brightly coloured puppet) and I'm thinking that perhaps he thought we were loitering but when I went over to ask him what he wanted, he told us that they had had several phone calls from people who had been driving by on the street and had said they saw a couple of kids beating up another kid. I started laughing and we explained that no, we were shooting a film and I was the one who had been beaten up, that it was a bully scene and that no one was really getting beaten up. Oscars for everyone!

We finished up a few other miscellaneous scenes, I think we got a good start on the movie, though of course it will not be finished yet. We may go ahead and do voice-overs for all of it so that it has better sound quality. Then we headed on over for supper at the Noells, which was wonderful as always, but I had to skip out a little early to go do laundry, along with David's and Nathaniel's. Clay and David both offered to do it for me but I didn't mind. There were four loads to do and the laundromat was closing so I was only able to get in the washing part and had to go to the RV park for the other loads, which took two different cycles because there was only two dryers there. But I got some good reading in. It was very quiet there, I didn't see a single person.

Then I came back at about 11:20 and crashed on the bed. I needed sleep!

Sunday morning was good, we had breakfast at the S house again, which was bagels, eggs, and bacon, then headed off to church. I was ready to go at 8:50 with everything packed but decided to wait for my passengers, even if Clay could have taken the other two team members in his car, which he was driving as well, since we might not be coming back to the ranch.

We did indeed arrive later and the N's had a good start on the setup. We pitched in and everything was soon finished. The sermon was on the difference between the letter of the law (which kills) and the Spirit. I thought it was interesting because the previous night I had been reading Schaff's history and he was saying that according to rabbinical tradition, the law had been given 50 days after the passover and the leaving of Egypt. So there seemed to be some significance in the Spirit being given on the same day (traditionally) as the law was given, and something to think about a bit.

After the service and the lunch, we had a time of Bible verse recitation and also a little gathering to speak of the next week. Bruce will not be coming down to Enid with us, we are pretty much on our own but with the excellent supervision of the Ws.

We traveled that afternoon to the W's house. They will be sheltering us the entire time we are here in Enid. After a good study there in Hebrews 12, there were a couple of Psalms sung and then I headed off for bed, reading a bit until Clay came in and was ready to turn out the lights and we both dozed off. I am very thankful that Evelyn was able to come and stay the week as well, with Anna and Ruth for a couple of days. Brad will be working with us and the entire mission team. The Wagners have a full house but all the help is needed!

Monday morning I got up somewhat early, read in my Bible for a bit and then went outside. I took a few pictures of the morning scenes (the first I've taken in the last few weeks) and then went and started the weed eater. We were going to be doing some work around the house and were planning to start at 7:00 but I started on the weed-eating abotu 15 minutes early. Clay took over on the riding lawn mower and David with the push mower. Nathaniel helped Katie with the hedge trimming and we got most of it done. I took over for Clay on the riding lawn mower after a while (which was fun) but wasn't able to finish it all by 9:00, which was when I had to come in and eat, shower, and get ready for the trip over to Enid for the evangelism. We went door to door again in the morning, until about 12:00. I was paired up with Laura. We had a few houses where people answered questions, one lady sounded rather enthusiastic and while she agreed (when I said something about it) that belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour of her life is the only way to salvation, she did say something about going to church as a reason why she would go to heaven.

One house we came to rather early on had an elderly gentleman who opened the door, he told us that his wife would want to speak to us, so Laura went inside and I shut the door behind us. She was an elderly lady who said she was ninety. She was a pentecostal minister and she and her husband went around to various places (they had a travel trailer out in front). She spoke (or preached rather) to us for a while on various things, such as the necessity to be filled with the Spirit and how she has had many evidences of tongues and that is why she believes she will go to heaven. She prayed for us and started babbling with a couple of words here and there and told us we could pray in whatever language we chose. I tried to direct the conversation to something that would pry a little more but it was hard to get a word in edgewise, even though she agreed with what I was saying. She also said that God had given her many Psalms and that he had given her the music and the words. She started singing one in a cracking, faltering voice for us, something like:
He's inside of me,
He's inside of me,
Everywhere I go, he's inside of me.

Her manner was very nice but so many strange things she said as well. After we left Laura and I had a good discussion about it and some of the beliefs. I compared some of the pressure to have "evidence of tongues" to the Emperor's new clothes, where the nobles felt that they had to say they saw them or else they would have been suspected of being dishonest or whatever it was. Many people I am sure sincerely believe what they are doing, but many others feel the pressure to put on an act. I mentioned examples of one man standing up and saying that he had a message from God and that the elders needed to repent and become better, then another saying immediately afterward that he too had a message from God and that the elders were doing wonderful and God told him to encourage them. Does God contradict himself? They make a mockery of his Spirit. This lady spoke of how she was on a cane because she had a bruise 6 years previously but that she knew God would make her walk again. There is a difference however between believing that God will do something for you and abiding in his will and understanding that no matter what happens, he has our best interests in mind and will work all things according to the good of those who love him. I can't imagine living through life expecting certain things that I wanted and thinking that I just didn't have enough faith to get them done.

We also had a man who was alone in the house listening to the radio about the things that had been going on in Israel, he invited us in and turned it down and answered our questions. He said that he didn't believe Jesus was God because God was someone whom we couldn't define and certainly wouldn't be a man, he also believed in an afterlife but not necessarily a heaven and a hell. He sounded very confused and was willing to listen to what I was trying to say but just didn't know what to make of it all. We left him with some information and got his name and address for a future visit. I think he might be open to such a thing. After our time was up, we headed back to the vehicles and drove to the Wagner's for lunch, ate quickly and then went to the YMCA to set up for VBS. There were quite a few kids that showed up and we were thankful for that! Beth just said there were thirty-three who showed up, which is a pretty good turnout! We kept them all together in one group and attempted to entertain, enlighten, and enclose them for three hours. That was a long afternoon. It went well though and we had a good time. I had one little red-headed girl come up to me and sit for a while as I was talking with her and another little boy and she sniffed my headband (which was sweaty) and told me I smelled nice. Then she said I was handsome and she loved me. Keep in mind she is probably 6 or 7 years old! But she did something similar with David and Anna so it wasn't just me! I was thinking "um.. okay, this is really strange. You're moving a little too fast girl."

We then came back and had supper. I finished up the mowing before-hand and had some time to write a little. We had spaghetti. We went afterwards to the Air Force base, where Mr W had arranged to let us try the flight simulators. I thought it was fantastic. We tried some old ones first and when I took the controls, they had the force feedback and you could see 200 degrees around you, the cockpit had the controls, even the compass moved when you did. I did a barrel roll. It was an amazing feeling, almost as though you really were flying. I liked the second simulator even better, it was a large sphere and you could really see almost all around. We were flying over the part of Oklahoma where we were at and could recognize certain landmarks. It was such an exhilarating feeling and something you'll probably be able to read in much more detail and richness on FB's blog ;)

Well, I'm going to hit the sack. It's 10:30 as I'm writing this in TED Notepad and I'd like to get to bed soon.