as the crowds gather

Another full day here at ANBC... if you're not with us, you're missing out on some great fellowship and ministry together.

We were joined by our friends Rob & Irene VanAsperen from Jacksontown Baptist Church; Kyle Hughes from Providence Christian Church and the first wave of volunteers from Peterborough Free Methodist Church arrived by plane (the remainder of the team will arrive by van tomorrow morning).

The Speakers Cabin renovation is taking shape with lots of exciting changes, the Waban-Aki Book & Soda Shop is all ready for the Peterborough team to tackle and the yard clean-up has begun!

Speakers Cabin Renovation: Paul and John framing out the new bathroom door.

Zach built a new coat rack for the apartment.

Todd has been working on the bell for the "coupla"!

Speakers Cabin Renovation: Dave and Brian got quite a bit of the drywall up today.

Speakers Cabin Renovation: Cindy, Dave and Brian getting the new insulation underway.

Kevin & Zach took advantage of the rainy day and burned the burn pile.

Speakers Cabin Renovation: Todd Hill helped out with some wiring issues in this cabin.

The mobile office...

Thumbs up Paul!

Brooke & Justus (and Zach) have been our dish crew for this week! We certainly appreciate their help!

Barb Heal and Lorrayne Breen helping to prepare to feed all the hard working folks.

 Rob is going to build us some new games for the summer and repair some of our old games.

Work Week 2013... demo day!

Today was another fantastic day at ANBC. Our friends from Victory Baptist church were joined by a new friend from Devon Park Baptist Church here in Fredericton; Brian has been helping with the Speakers Cabin renovation.

Todd Hill joined us today to wire the tuck shop for that renovation and Todd Nielsen began work on the "coupla", a belfry to house our big brass camp bell!

We were joined tonight by NCEM General Director Albert Heal and his wife Barb as well as Len & Lorrayne Breen our Eastern Field Directors! The lodge is beginning to fill up! It's always exciting at ANBC during work week!

Cindy & Julie getting ready to tackle the speakers cabin!

Todd Nielsen is building us a belfry for our big brass camp bell!

The "coupla" is going to be pretty snazzy!

Our speakers cabin will be a housekeeping unit, Paul and Dave were busy with demo today.

Inside, outside!

 After beginning to work in the speakers cabin it became evident that there had been rodents living in the wall at some point in the past. So the renovation became much more comprehensive... but it's going to look amazing when they're all done.

Resident electrical wizard... Todd Hill!

Zack working on getting the big brass bell all shined up!

 Eve & Liz making the magic happen in the kitchen... keeping everyone all fed up!

So happy to have Brian join us from Devon Park Baptist.

We're certainly putting the ANBC truck through it's paces this week!

2013 Work Week

Last week preparations began for our annual Spring Work Week! We are anticipating a complete overhaul and reinvention of our Tuck Shop building, and to begin I gutted the building as much as I was able and cleared it all out.

 This building will look much differently by next Saturday.

As part of our re-imagining of the ANBC Tuck Shop we took advantage of the going out of business sale at Zellers and availed ourselves of some of the fixtures and furniture during their clearance sale.

These stools will sit in front of the counter in the new tuck shop.

I made a trip to Cocagne on Friday and picked up this load of lumber for us to use for re-siding the outside of the tuck shop. A major issue that we have had in the past is bats living behind the siding of this building. So, we are going to replace and bat proof the East wall and hopefully be bat free ongoing.

 

This wonderful rack was built several years ago by Jamie Weber, a friend and volunteer from Gorrie, Ontairo. We are so thankful for gifts like this that enable us to do all of the things we need to do at ANBC.

Today marked the first day of our 2013 work week, we were joined by the Nielsen family 5 as well as the Strouts. It was great to work together as local missionaries. The ladies took care of some of the Spring cleaning, while Todd & Kevin tackled a rather serious moisture problem around a window and air conditioner in the kitchen. I dealt with some water woes; I had a professional in today to look at our water system as it had ceased making water. He has taken some water samples, but he is suspicious that we have high levels of Manganese in our water, and this has ruined the pump on our reverse osmosis unit. We should know in the next couple of days just what the verdict will be, but Lord willing we should be able to start making water again in the near future. In the interim we have brought in bottled water for cooking and drinking. The water system is still working for our showers, toilets and dishes, so we are not out of commission, but we are prayerful that the expense of dealing with Manganese in the water will not be overwhelming.

Tonight we are excited to welcome a ministry team from Victory Baptist Church near Newmarket, Ontario. They are tackling the renovation project in the speakers cabin. It is our hope to have this building be a self sufficient housekeeping unit. It will serve for volunteers in the summer and be available as a getaway rental throughout the year. We are so blessed and excited to have this team with us, for the first time, this year.

 Todd & Kevin beginning to work on the water damaged wall around the air conditioner.

All completed, with a casement window filling the space. A job well done and serious damage prevented. Thanks to Don & Sue Currie for the donated window.

The ladies got busy with the Spring cleaning, Eve (above) Liz & Marcia got right to business scrubbing and tidying!

Stay tuned for updates and pictures throughout this week!