Guys, seriously, the western wall is SOOOO close to being completed! With two construction teams left for 2015, it looks like we will have a chance to at least have all the footers poured, block laid, and beams poured. “Well that took a whole year!” you may say. Actually, not quite….

There were 27 weeks of construction teams that came down to serve with Solid Rock International since January 1, 2015. Not all of those teams got to work on the wall. At my guess, 20 teams TOPS contributed to the wall. Teams only work 4 days a week, so that’s only 80 days of work, just shy of three months, to build an entire wall! That’s pretty good.

The last month contained two teams. Brookside church from Fort Wayne, Indiana brought down a large team and did a variety of work on the wall. They poured footers, laid block, and poured a section of top beam. What a well rounded team! My brother-in-law got to join in on this team and he and a few guys played lumberjack and chopped down a tree across from the guesthouse that had been recently struck by lightning.

Following Brookside was First Presbyterian Church of Nashville. They also did a little bit of everything. They were able to get the wall prepped for these last two teams who hope to finish it off. A few members of First Pres. also contributed in a huge way by helping to purchase a new cement mixer! For any of you who have come down in the past decade or two, you are probably familiar with “ole faithful” (that name was just now at this moment given to her (yes she is a she)). This mixer has been slowly dying over the past few years, and last week she finally said, “I’ve had enough!” The group wasn’t going to let that stop them, so we found a temporary rental, and this past weekend I was able to purchase “new faithful” (name also just given, also a she). Isn’t she lovely?

Can’t see the pic? Well, I’m currently having major difficulties getting my pictures to upload correctly to this blog, so you can see all the pictures from these last few teams here on our Facebook photos page.

Speaking of working on the wall for a year, it’s been one year since we broke ground on the site last November. Check out the video footage from the ceremony here.

So if you’re planning to come in 2016, fix your sights on the southern wall! I’m sure it will hold its own set of challenges, but I’m prepared and I know you will be too!