We are announcing a called business meeting for Sunday, December 4, 2011, at 12:45 P.M. The meeting will take place during the meal following our dedication service. There will be one item on the agenda, dealing with the purchase of a house two doors down from our parking lot on 54th street. The Church Council will be bringing a motion to move forward with this purchase as quickly as possible.

Years ago, before the purchase of the land at 110th and Slide Road, Bacon Heights attempted to buy houses in the immediate neighborhood. The members realized we needed more land if we were to remain here. We were unable to make significant purchases and knew we would become land-locked unless something was done. That's when the church purchased the 110th Street property. We were going to relocate there. Over time it became apparent that God didn't want us to vacate the 79414 area, so we voted to remain here and remodel/rebuild our current facility.

What we were unable to accomplish years ago has now become possible. A couple of years ago we purchased the house adjacent to us on the 53rd Street side and it is now Annex 1. The lady who lives next door to our parking lot on the 54th Street side has indicated a desire to sell to us when she no longer needs her house. Now the house next to her on the 54th Street side, has become available.

When we voted to remain at our present location we accepted the fact that we would be challenged with our limited space. But we all sensed God's desire for us to remain in our present location. And now God is opening doors for us to acquire the much-needed additional space. He tested our willingness to be faithful to His leading and remain even when we didn't see how we could expand. He's now acting on our behalf and space is becoming available. This is yet another indication that our best years are still ahead of us.

Another beautiful Fall Monday and another day of exciting, developing work outside BHBC.  We've got several crews working this week at various projects. Here's an overview of the scope of work being performed.

One crew is preparing the south parking lot for a chip seal coat. Last week they removed the concrete bumpers and swept the lot. Monday morning they were scooping up the debris from the sweeping in anticipation of the asphalt.

Two loads of gravel arrived, again in anticipation of the asphalt being spread. Turns out the asphalt distributor (the tank truck that spreads the asphalt) was placed in the shop Friday for a "quick" fix that turned into a 4 day fix. Hopefully, the truck will be repaired and the asphalt laid Thursday.

Interestingly enough, Lisa West, owner of the Double Nickel Steak House, is doing some repair work on her property as well. South Lubbock is being upgraded.

Meanwhile, back on the ranch--err, I mean, on the main campus, the masons were busily adding brick to the columns for the trellis.

Several masons were working. Laying brick is not a one-man job.

Men laying out the dimensions for the vertical element.

The vertical element is beginning to take shape, to the left of the picture.

The element won't be all brick. Some split-face block will be used. This is going to look great.

Here you can see the split-face block being add to the vertical element.

Here's a view of work being done, looking from the east to the west.

The compressor for the air conditioner will be hidden behind a screen wall. Soon this will disappear.

The vertical element will be well lit at night. The lights will be secured on concrete bases. Everything about our construction project just screams sturdy. Here Pee Wee, with the Lee Lewis Company, works to compact the soil under the concrete base.

A back hoe from the Thrasher Company began breaking up the old asphalt at the entrance to the circle drive. We'll have new asphalt that will rise to the walk level under the porte-cochere. That means no ramps and no dreaded truncated dome bricks here.

But before the asphalt goes down the base must be made firm. The big machines work in close proximity to each other in a small space.

As if 2 large machines working in close space is not enough, here comes a third. Notice the sheep's' foot roller in the middle. All were working in perfect harmony, kind of like a dance of the titans.

Base material has been delivered to raise the elevation of the driveway under the porte-cochere. (Base material is much cheaper than asphalt.)

You won't see this for a long, long, long time--a grader under our porte-cochere. Once this is fixed it should be good for decades and decades.

As I write it is Tuesday afternoon and the sheep's' foot roller is making the floor shake as it packs the soil for the parking lot. We ARE making good progress and will be finished very soon. Can't wait!

Wednesday morning the crews began working on our new light poles. We're going to install some new lighting for our west parking lot and the new south lot. No big deal, right? Just set a couple of poles and be done with it all. Yeah, right! Check this out.

A substantial crew arrived to begin the work this morning.

Machinery and men working in harmony--it just doesn't get any better than that!

This fabricated section of re bar is ready to be placed in the hole for the light pole.

Before the re bar can go into the ground, an opening has to be created.Wahla--a big, big drill.

The ground is so dry and tough that it gave the drilling machine fits. Here the operator makes repairs following a completed hole just a few minutes ago. He'll dig a hole 8 feet deep for the footing for the light pole.

We had nearly enough brick and block on hand for the vertical element and trellis. Nearly enough--here a pickup truck makes a delivery.

Remember this? It's back! This is the storage and distributing bin for the dry material used to make mortar for brick work.

Here's the above ground form for the light pole bases.

After a slow start, the drill gets busy and punches that 8 foot deep hole in short order. Next comes the above ground form, the re bar installed and, tomorrow, the concrete.

Once again we had the thrill of steel arriving on a Monday morning. The air was crisp and the sky was beautiful when the 18-wheeler arrived with our trellis and cross.

Of course our friends, the Bryan Bennett crew, were on hand to immediately begin unloading the steel. Ahh, the sound of it all--autumn steel.  Just makes the blood flow faster seeing these big pieces of the construction puzzle arriving to be installed.

We were thrilled to see the first "load" come off the truck.

WE HAVE A CROSS. At the moment it looks insanely tall and skinny. Just wait until the brick and block gets in place around the base. This will look great!

The ropes used to position the cross didn't want to come loose. No problem--just give a steel worker a joy ride. (These guys think nothing of hopping on a crane and being lifted high in the air.)

 Off come the base poles for the trellis.

The top parts of the trellis came "pre-assembled." These are impressive pieces of metal.

Simply position and weld in place. The south side of our worship center has a much different appearance at the end of the day than at the beginning. Good work for a Monday.