Wesley Center Update

Please pray for our youth as they attend the Mid-Winter Retreat at Lakeview camp this weekend, February 5-7. We have 17 youth and 3 adults attending. This Sunday in worship we will enjoy our Children's Choir as they sing praises to God. Yolanda Griffin directs this choir with assistance from Judy Brown. They do a wonderful job.
In this space, I would like to provide an update on the progress of the Wesley Center building. As of the writing of this column, here's where we are.
The metal structure is of course up, framed, walled with ceiling. I understand that the wood framing inside is complete or close to it. If you take a look inside, you'll see a large open space on the east side. This will be our fellowship area. It will have a basketball goal on the south wall. There is plenty of storage on the bottom floor there for tables and chairs. The elevator machinery began to arrive today (February 2nd). On the bottom floor on the west side of the building, you'll find a large kitchen, parlor area and youth director's office. In addition, there are two bathrooms, men's and women's, each with two showers. This will equip us to be a shelter in case of disaster and will also be a blessing for hosting mission camps.
The second floor is located on the west side of the building and it contains four classrooms, two devoted solely to our youth ministry. They can call this space home. There is also a small restroom upstairs.
As you know there is a porte-cache drive through on the south side of the building that is covered for drop off in the Wesley Center. We were able to add this to the project without going over the approved budget, because of cost savings in other areas.
At present, the elevator is on its way, the electrician is beginning his work inside and other utilities are close to doing their work.
The brick work has begun with a great deal of progress made on the north side of the building (Walt Davis Drive) and preparations being made for the other sides. Brick will go up from the ground to just above the first story windows on every side. There will also be brick columns going higher on every side, which you can begin to see on that north side. Just a reminder that the non-bricked area will be covered with a stucco-like finish that will match the brick coloring.
We don't have an accurate "move-in" time. You can understand the contractors hesitancy to put a target date on that but if you drive by the church frequently, you'll notice that all the laborers are hard at work nearly every day of the week. We are grateful for the work of our building committee and particularly Sidney Allison its chair. Great thanks to Otis Fortenberry also, our General Contractor. Otis and Sidney go to extra lengths to make sure things are done right.
At our recent annual Church Council Leadership Retreat, we announced the formation of the Wesley Center Task Group. This group will study and make recommendations for Wesley Center ministry to the Church Council. We want to be ready to transfer exisiting ministries to that space as soon as it's open, as well as plan new ministries that this space makes possible. This group will also work with the Trustees on policies that will govern the use of the building. The Wesley Center Task Group is Gordon McCluskey, Council chair; Stephanie Smith, lay leader; Reagan Pillack, Building Committee, Dixie Jarrott, staff; Grady McCluskey, Trustees; and me. If you have ideas or questions related to Wesley Center ministry, please contact one of these folks.
Please pray for us as we work on putting together some concrete recommendations for Wesley Center ministry.
God bless you this week.