I still can’t believe we built a lodge, financially and physically, as a church. And I’m so glad and grateful we did. We have had so many memories and relationship-building times there: relationship-building times with one another, and relationship-building times with God. What did this massive effort take? I wish I could recall all the details, but I can’t. I can only recall and recount the things that stuck out to me the most. First: our all-star pastoral team. One would think that most of the work was done by the church members while our pastoral team focused on preaching and their ministry work, but the truth is that all of our pastors, and full-time church staff, devoted themselves to building Sierra Lodge during the week in addition to their ministry duties. Kevin Han and another brother (both architects) laid out the plans for the house. In the early stages, Daniel would go up to Sierra Lodge alone, sleep in the camper that did not have any electricity, in the middle of the Sierras, in order to keep watch over our equipment. After different groups went up, Kevin Han and others would have to undo some of the mistakes our members made, and redo what they were supposed to do right the first time. In fact, our commemorative Sierra Lodge T-shirt says: “Who need skills when we can do it over.” =)
Pastor Ed and all of our other church staff, even staff brothers who took days “off” from work, would go up for a couple of days during the week, in order to maximize building time. I feel like Tim was almost always there (one of our Kairos leads)! I was especially taken aback when I went up to Sierra lodge for Bible Teachers’ Training, where Pastor Ed spent 2-3 days at a time with 6 different groups of people to train them to teach the bible more effectively. He concentrated as we each took turns giving bible study (3-4 hour sessions) and gave us gems of advice. And when we were done with training we went to work at Sierra lodge. He oversaw what needed to be done, and worked hard himself. When I was growing up, there were many times I watched my dad work hard on our house; my job was to bring him a cold drink once in a while. I remember feeling so loved when I saw my dad work in that way. I couldn’t help but feel the same way when I witnessed Pastor Ed and our staff work in the same way, for our larger church family, because they wanted this to be such a place of blessing for our church. They not only shelved out the cash necessary to build Sierra house, but applied their bodies to do the work, too. They worked the hardest, and set the example. During the weekends, different ministry groups would go up and work together. I remember putting the insulation in all the restrooms, nailing metal things to some really hard wood to secure the frame for the house, and shoveling dirt from one place to another. And now, once where there was nothing, stands our precious Sierra Lodge. Hope you can make it to our all-Kairos Sierra Lodge trip this weekend!
