Moving In
Packing. Moving. These are dreadful words. Over the past 6 years, I've moved 7 times, and trust me, those are dreadful words. But this wasn't just a house or an apartment, but our very own church building, fondly known to us as Alcatraz, the street on which it resides. It's hard to imagine packing an 8000 square-foot building, filled with twenty-five plus years of history, in one day, but we did it.
It was an amazing gathering. The remnants, those whose family were too far away to visit on the short 4-day weekend or those who simply couldn't make the trek to wherever home may be, readily stepped foot, bright and early, 9am when most of the world was either out scavenging the sales for deals or sleeping off the turkey dinner, we were there ready to work. Ready to pack, box, tape, cook, clean out, empty out... First, we rooted ourselves in our daily Bible reading, and then eagerly looked at the spreadsheets with our assignments nicely posted, our stomachs filled with Noah's Bagels, orange juice, and coffee all prepared for us.
By lunch, we were all starving... the dozen boxes of Costco pizza magically appeared, we scarfed it all down and scurried back to work. Even the youth children, gladly posted signs for their innovative box factory, taping boxes for all the aunties and uncles. Those from Davis and SF came all the way to help pack. Neat labels with Box ___ of ___ and Contents; inventorying each item as we packed away...Kelly reminding us we don't want to come back tomorrow.
Chris, one of the older guys, was atop of the container of trash, and many more guys infiltrated the storage space beneath the building, pulling out Dewalt drills, saws, paint thinners, long pieces of wood, and who knows what. It would be pointless to put everything we just organized back under the building, Ben made a few calls and in a short-time we had a U-haul in front of our building. Sue and Judy quickly gathered our junk to sell, only to give it all away in the closing hours before dark. Jeannie with a new spreadsheet of the various member's open garages throughout Alameda for possible storage space before the move next weekend. Esther and crew making delicious soup that just hits the spot after a long day of packing.
By the end of the day, the center of each room was filled with boxes, stacked neatly atop of each other. Pastor Ed's office alone had 38 boxes and this is the smallest room in all of Alcatraz.
Now a year later almost, we're in our new building at North Loop, again, moved, unpacked and settled in by everyone doing what little we can, pushing through dust and fatigue to make our church what it is, more than just a building, but a place where we can all call home.