We began Work Week at the Peak 2022 with a new, catchy slogan. Being the thematic gal that I am, it seemed appropriate that this year's work week had a new vibe attached to it.
"Make Shiloh Shine" piggy-backed off our last year's theme, "Eliminate the Ugly." And there was a WHOLE lot of ugly going on! Thanks to our hard-working and highly skilled volunteers last year, the ugly was indeed eliminated.
This year, however, the goal to make Shiloh shine was front and center only because so many projects had been completed over the past year from our work crew and our retired missionary couple. What's a crew to do when most of Shiloh's eye sores were already completely transformed?
No worries. There are no shortage of projects at Shiloh Ranch. But here are a few projects we finished off last year...
~Fresh paint on the main floor walls, upstairs bedrooms and walls going up the stairs, and the basement living room and hallway walls.
~New flooring was laid on the existing plywood floor upstairs. (Thank you, Chad).
~Bare, trim less bases of walls, closets, doors, etc. were trimmed out including a closet in the hallway that at one time was not utilized-it contained empty, unusable space. Thanks to our friend Ron, he painted, trimmed and fit it with shelves. Those shelves have saved my legs from traveling all the way down to the basement linen closet from all areas of the lodge to get sheets and towels. This closet now houses linens on the main floor as well. Talk about convenience!
~The lovely and refined sheet rock walls defined the rustic look of Shiloh when we arrived upon the scene back in 2020. Since then, it has been covered up by either paint or fresh wood paneling thanks to our talented helpers Paul, Ron, Steve, and Doug.
There were many other projects that helped eliminate the ugly back in 2021 and into 2022, but those were some of the major ones.
Work Week 2022 was just as productive, and our crew hit the ground running. Our 2022 Crew was on it like bees on honey. The catchy slogan for 2022 was,
"Make Shiloh Shine!"
Our main focus for the weekend was on the manager's cabin which needs some serious help all around. We will be living out at Shiloh full-time come August, so this was our top priority and we hope to have it finished sooner than later. To say that the manager's cabin is a wreck would be the understatement of the year. It was filled with debris in one form or another and I fear some woodland creatures may or may not have made it their home at one time or another.
Our hope was that the work crew would get all the debris cleaned out so that our contractor would be ready to start renovation as soon as possible. To be fair, the old cabin is over a hundred years old and hasn't had anyone living in it since the early 2000's. It needs to be gutted, renovated, and loved again.
Well, I'll tell you what. This crew had that cabin cleaned out in no time flat! I'm sure they were done within a few hours, because when I went to take pictures a bit later-it was all cleaned out.
While this was going on, others were washing windows, cleaning bathrooms, weed whacking, mowing, clearing trails, dusting logs in the lodge, fixing the garage roof, organizing, putting new flooring in the main floor bathroom, and cleaning out the prayer cabin which is now ready for use! That night, Don and Gaylene celebrated their 34th anniversary in a fresh, cleaned from top to bottom prayer cabin-complete with a steak dinner.
And through it all, once again we formed and forged new friendships with amazing folks who gave of their time, energy, and talents. Where the Holy Spirit resides, bonds of love and fellowship are created. It felt as if we'd all known each other forever as we worked, connected, laughed, poked fun, and broke bread together. But this is how it is in the family of God. We serve one Savior, Jesus Christ, and He is love. So those who are gathered in HIS NAME are gathered in love and a common purpose-to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
Nate and I and the Protectors' Peak board can't thank these amazing volunteers enough for volunteering their time at Shiloh Ranch! We hope they enjoyed their time as much as we enjoyed having them and we hope they come back next year.
Shiloh is shining and ready for our summer 2022 retreats! If you or someone you know could use some time away this summer, we still have room in our LEO, LEO Wives, Chaplain, and Firefighter/EMS retreats. Simply click on this link, Retreats | Protectors' Peak (protectorspeak.com), and it will take you to our retreat page
Thank you, Crew of 2022, for being the hands and feet of Jesus and making Shiloh shine!
"Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
John 13:35