Continuous Construction
Standing here now, in the entry way
to this place, I envision myself eight months into the future. I will be
standing in this exact spot. My father will be fighting back tears of joy and
heartache, while my mother will be sitting in the front row, our family and
friends behind her. I can almost feel the rough fabric of my father’s suit
jacket, scratchy against the flushed skin on my forearm. A thin layer of
nervous sweat dampens my chest and brow. We are all anticipating the familiar cadence
to be played on the glossy black Grand Piano which sits proudly on the stage.
“Here Comes the Bride” echoes through my ears and fills every fiber of the
church. Everybody rises when they see that I have entered the sanctuary and my “soon
to be” husband is standing there, as handsome as ever, waiting for me.
For me, it seems as if I’ve been
waiting my whole life for that moment, which is still just out of my reach. In
reality, I’ve only been anticipating my wedding day for a mere five years, a
relatively short time in comparison to the grand scheme of things. I am, after
all, only 20 years old and I consider myself extremely blessed to have found my
soul mate at such an early age. Our relationship, much like the building where
we met, has been remodeled, added on to, and improved with each passing year. For
us and our relationship our church has been the focal point of our journey
together. It’s the starting and the ending place.
Grace Fellowship Church is located
in DeMotte, hardly a smudge on a map of Northwest Indiana. To most, Grace is
just one of the other 16 churches that are scattered throughout the town. It is
probably one of the more modern buildings that surround Halleck Street and all
two of its stop lights, but it has character nonetheless. It rests only 50 feet
away from the train tracks that run coal through our town to NIPSCO, or Northern
Indiana Public Service Company, the power plant for pretty much all of
northwest Indiana. The whole church shakes when the rusty trains roar by. They
always seem to be moving at 11 A.M. right in the middle of Pastor Tim’s
sermons.
In the beginning, Grace was a simple
rectangular building with four windows. The brick reminded me of sand. It had a
rough grainy like texture but it was dull and lacked any color other than gray.
The small stain glass window above the main entrance door was seemingly insignificant
in comparison to the plainness of the rest of the building. It was the only
piece of artwork in the whole place yet it almost always went unnoticed, mostly
due to its location and small stature. It hung above the entrance only two and
a half feet wide and a foot and a half tall. I remember the white dove with an
olive branch in its mouth, surrounded by a multitude of various colored shards
of glass.
The inside wasn’t much of an
improvement. The double glass doors opened up to a cramped hallway. It was
impossible to navigate your way through the mass of people before and after all
three services each Sunday morning. The
building was not big enough to accommodate the growing population. Not only was
the entrance located in that hallway, but the bathrooms were to the left and the
nursery was to the right. Once you finally made it through and into the
sanctuary, you would have already seen the entire church. Bright purple chairs
were set in semi straight rows that were constructed each week. Tall carpet
covered dividers were pushed off to all sides of the room to make space for the
congregation. During the week, Grace Fellowship Church was home to a small
preschool, which would probably explain the various stains on the already shady
carpet.
By the time my family had begun
attending Grace Fellowship there was already talk of adding on to the current
building. The attendance had skyrocketed and it seemed as if new members were
being added every week. As a family, we had fallen in love with the people at
Grace and it was a great fit for us. After a few months of getting to know the
church and what its values were, we became members. My parents became leaders
in the youth group and, by the time my younger sister and I were in junior high,
we were attending with them on Wednesday nights.
It was during youth group on
Wednesday nights that I met Gerrit. We were both in 8th grade, only
15 at the time. I went to the public school and he went to the private school. Much
like the building where we saw each other twice a week, our relationship was
dull, immature, and seemingly insignificant. There was however, a glimmer of
beauty there somewhere. Like the stain glass window, not everyone could see the
spark between us or think anything more of it other than one of those silly
high school relationships that last a month if their lucky.
Within the following year, my
freshman year of high school, the construction process of the new building was
underway. The plan was that the new building would not just be an expansion of
the old one, but a combination of the two into one. By the time it was to be
finished, you would have never known that the old one existed. All though these
plans were great, nothing would have become of them if it were not for the
people who worked hard to make them happen.
Like anything that is built from
scratch, it takes a long time before it is finally finished. Essentially, our
church was being transformed into something completely new and it took over a
year to complete. In the meantime, the congregation met in a school gymnasium.
There was never any air-conditioning and the sound equipment wasn’t the
greatest. Regardless, everyone always had on a smile and made the most of the
musky sweat smell of the gym by laughing and joking. Everyone was looking
forward to the brand new and much better building, that the time in between
didn’t matter.
In a lot of ways that is how my new
relationship had started out. As a youth group we took a lot of trips
throughout the year. I remember one in particular where Gerrit and I really hit
it off. I can’t remember now where it was that we were going; just that it was
some sort of concert and we had to take the church’s painted white school bus
to get there. He sat next to me on the
bus, and believe me, when you’re an eighth grader going to be a freshman that’s
a big deal. We talked most of the way there but I will never forget when he
held my hand. Just out of nowhere and with no warning he grabbed my hand and
held on until we arrived at our destination.
We knew from the start that we
wanted to spend our lives with one another but there had to be time in between.
High school was, well, high school. We had to work hard through those four
years. There were times when I thought surly; we weren’t going to make it, but
we always did. Even after a year of college where we both changed and
discovered who and what we wanted to be no amount of screaming matches broke us
up, instead we grew stronger.
Finally it came time to complete the
project that is our relationship. Even so, much like a growing church, a
relationship cannot reach an official ending point. Grace Fellowship has sense
completed its initial construction project of the new addition. The brick has
taken on a new, fresh, sand color that reminds me of the dunes near Lake
Michigan. Two white pillars support the arched entry way and there are two sets
of double doors that take you in and out fluidly. The stain glass window is
still above the door in the entry way, where is greets the members who know of
its existence. The foyer has furniture with curved edges that look modern, but
the fireplace welcomes you and invites you into the sanctuary. It now has
several Sunday school rooms and office space that you can’t see all from one
spot. You have to explore the building a bit before you really get to know it.
It is not just the cosmetics that
have to change and develop with the passing of time but the people as well. New
and exciting programs have taken off. The children’s ministry has grown
drastically and there is even a program for kids with special needs. That is a
big deal for Grace and for the community itself.
Today Gerrit and I do not have a
perfect relationship but a growing one. We are beginning a construction project
of our own. We are piecing together a new life and combining two families. We
will never finish this project but we will continue to improve it and make it
better than what it was before. I have Grace Fellowship to thank for that.
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